Face it Microsoft, you can't hang with Apple in the combined software+hardware ring. No one can yet - not even Google.
Like you said, yet. What goes up must come down. I'm not saying iTunes/iPod will fall the way of the dodo, but it can drop like IE against its competitors. It's just that no one has figured it out.
The only Microsoft consumer brand with any credibility is the Xbox - I have no idea why they have wasted so much time and resources on Zune/Kin etc. instead of making a handheld Xbox.
The existence of the Zune pretty much slipped my mind over the past year. It is surprising though to hear that it didn't even make it into the "top five US portable digital music players last year" unless that list includes everything by Apple rather than lumping all Apple products together.
If the list is something like: 1) iPod Nano, 2) iPod Touch, 3) iPad, 4) iPod Shuffle, 5) iPod Classic... then yeah, it's understandable that another particular brand might not make it anywhere in the top five. But if it's: 1) Apple products, 2) Creative(?), 3) Whoever else... then that would be pretty stunning that Microsoft couldn't pull that off.
Anyways, I do think its a shame, the Zune HD hardware was great for when it launched, after two generations they finally had it polished to a gem, but they never took off with the app side of things, and never refreshed the hardware.
You would think that Microsoft would be the one to get the software end of things going the best. After all, they are supposed to be a software company. I think the proof is in the pudding - Microsoft basically relinquished its relevancy when Bill Gates stepped down and Ballmer took over. Ballmer has been nothing but a weight on Microsoft since he took over Bill's old day-to-day duties.
Therein lies a big part of Microsoft's problem. They were once great in their own right, but that wasn't enough.
Mistake 1:
They attempted to take on others in areas where they clearly were at a disadvantage.
Mistake 2:
Instead of realizing that they had bitten off more than they could chew, they just chewed harder. Meanwhile, everyone else happily progressed into the 21st century.
Mistake 3:
Too little too late - Realizing that they were falling behind everyone else, they've spent the last 5 years trying frantically to catch up with the competition that they were once so sure they could crush.
What Microsoft should do is QUIT trying to catch up with everyone else and start focusing on something new and different like they did 20 years ago. That's the only chance they have of ever being as good as they once were.
At least that's the opinion of a 25 year Microsoft developer
ROFL!! Yes, there can be no doubt, it failed only because of the reasons AI wrote about.
From everything I read the Zune it actually was reasonably good hardware. They had a great music subscription system, Zune Pass. All the music in their library for $15 bucks per month, plus you get credits to buy 10 songs each month.
I think the Zune failed primarily because of Microsoft's horrible marketing and of course, Apple's market dominance (well deserved be that as it may).
-kpluck
So you realise that the second reason your expert brain is capable of providing this forum is a tautology, right? MS failed to compete with apple because apple dominated the market? Ah, who's ROFLing now?
About the first, it's mere speculation founded in the void. You simply assert that what is required for products to win over is just marketing. You forget that people don't want to pay a monthly fee for music, they just want a music player, and a store of songs where they can buy their own with no strings attached.
But there's truth to your criticism over MS' marketing. It's not something they can do about it, though. MS is doomed from the start in the marketing area wrt the younger generation, which looks at microsoft as older people look to IBM: an overbloated "not-cool" mega corporation that only survives by parasiting the whole industry with its own intelectual property portfolio, filled with terrible wretched software. Young kids perceive MS like this, and they perceive Apple as "cool", "sexy" and "stylish".
It's a lost battle right from the start. Apple will dominate this decade.
Anyone else completely bored of sales figures and market share?
I mean, I used to come to this site because it offered nice info about upcoming Apple products. Now all it seems to do is offer sales figures for every tech device out there. Maybe time to rename to TechSalesFigures.com or something.
What Microsoft should do is QUIT trying to catch up with everyone else and start focusing on something new and different like they did 20 years ago. That's the only chance they have of ever being as good as they once were.
At least that's the opinion of a 25 year Microsoft developer
We have to recognize that the current windows phone 7 series is at least a seriously rethinking of what a smartphone should be.
And that Kinect is really good.
What I wonder is what Microsoft will do with Kinect. We have seen its potential in hundreds of amazing hacks all over the internetz. We have even seen videos of Microsoft employees doing interesting stuff with it.
But I doubt they will bring this stuff to the PC, or anything else. Apple learned a lot from iOS and brought things "back to the mac", I seriously doubt Microsoft's ability to do the same with its exclusive product.
So we will have to wait to see what Apple will do with Kinect - type of technology.
ROFL!! Yes, there can be no doubt, it failed only because of the reasons AI wrote about.
From everything I read the Zune it actually was reasonably good hardware. They had a great music subscription system, Zune Pass. All the music in their library for $15 bucks per month, plus you get credits to buy 10 songs each month.
I think the Zune failed primarily because of Microsoft's horrible marketing and of course, Apple's market dominance (well deserved be that as it may).
-kpluck
When are people going to learn that marketing is not a cure-all if you don't have a great product?
Why do people still think shelling out $15 a month to listen to music is such a great idea?
We have to recognize that the current windows phone 7 series is at least a seriously rethinking of what a smartphone should be.
And that Kinect is really good.
I agree about Windows Phone 7 - I had a look at a colleagues and was really impressed with it. It does some things really nicely.
Kinect is pretty cool too. There's lots of other applications you could see that technology be used for.
As a side note, I've thought of another dumbest thing Microsoft ever did. If you were to look at it from the point of view of a Microsoft shareholder, I would think giving Apple money to keep them going in 1997 was pretty stupid.
Guess the long haul is over. Time now for the iPad killer - the Zune Tablet!
The fabled Zublet! ...now we'll never know...
But seriously, I do feel a bit sorry for the Zune. If it hadn't been born to such terribly unfit parents the poor thing could have amounted to something and that might have been nice to see.
Comments
Guess the long haul is over. Time now for the iPad killer - the Zune Tablet!
Face it Microsoft, you can't hang with Apple in the combined software+hardware ring. No one can yet - not even Google.
Like you said, yet. What goes up must come down. I'm not saying iTunes/iPod will fall the way of the dodo, but it can drop like IE against its competitors. It's just that no one has figured it out.
Of all the dumbass things Microsoft have done over the years, I would vote releasing a Zune in brown as the second dumbest thing.
The dumbest obviously is Balmer being appointed CEO.
What do you think second dumbest is?
To be fair, at least it wasn't Flower Power or Blue Dalmation... Although all of the above really belong in the trash...
If the list is something like: 1) iPod Nano, 2) iPod Touch, 3) iPad, 4) iPod Shuffle, 5) iPod Classic... then yeah, it's understandable that another particular brand might not make it anywhere in the top five. But if it's: 1) Apple products, 2) Creative(?), 3) Whoever else... then that would be pretty stunning that Microsoft couldn't pull that off.
Anyways, I do think its a shame, the Zune HD hardware was great for when it launched, after two generations they finally had it polished to a gem, but they never took off with the app side of things, and never refreshed the hardware.
You would think that Microsoft would be the one to get the software end of things going the best. After all, they are supposed to be a software company. I think the proof is in the pudding - Microsoft basically relinquished its relevancy when Bill Gates stepped down and Ballmer took over. Ballmer has been nothing but a weight on Microsoft since he took over Bill's old day-to-day duties.
Mistake 1:
They attempted to take on others in areas where they clearly were at a disadvantage.
Mistake 2:
Instead of realizing that they had bitten off more than they could chew, they just chewed harder. Meanwhile, everyone else happily progressed into the 21st century.
Mistake 3:
Too little too late - Realizing that they were falling behind everyone else, they've spent the last 5 years trying frantically to catch up with the competition that they were once so sure they could crush.
What Microsoft should do is QUIT trying to catch up with everyone else and start focusing on something new and different like they did 20 years ago. That's the only chance they have of ever being as good as they once were.
At least that's the opinion of a 25 year Microsoft developer
ROFL!! Yes, there can be no doubt, it failed only because of the reasons AI wrote about.
From everything I read the Zune it actually was reasonably good hardware. They had a great music subscription system, Zune Pass. All the music in their library for $15 bucks per month, plus you get credits to buy 10 songs each month.
I think the Zune failed primarily because of Microsoft's horrible marketing and of course, Apple's market dominance (well deserved be that as it may).
-kpluck
So you realise that the second reason your expert brain is capable of providing this forum is a tautology, right? MS failed to compete with apple because apple dominated the market? Ah, who's ROFLing now?
About the first, it's mere speculation founded in the void. You simply assert that what is required for products to win over is just marketing. You forget that people don't want to pay a monthly fee for music, they just want a music player, and a store of songs where they can buy their own with no strings attached.
But there's truth to your criticism over MS' marketing. It's not something they can do about it, though. MS is doomed from the start in the marketing area wrt the younger generation, which looks at microsoft as older people look to IBM: an overbloated "not-cool" mega corporation that only survives by parasiting the whole industry with its own intelectual property portfolio, filled with terrible wretched software. Young kids perceive MS like this, and they perceive Apple as "cool", "sexy" and "stylish".
It's a lost battle right from the start. Apple will dominate this decade.
I mean, I used to come to this site because it offered nice info about upcoming Apple products. Now all it seems to do is offer sales figures for every tech device out there. Maybe time to rename to TechSalesFigures.com or something.
Of all the dumbass things Microsoft have done over the years, I would vote releasing a Zune in brown as the second dumbest thing.
The dumbest obviously is Balmer being appointed CEO.
What do you think second dumbest is?
I give up. Microsoft Kin?
What Microsoft should do is QUIT trying to catch up with everyone else and start focusing on something new and different like they did 20 years ago. That's the only chance they have of ever being as good as they once were.
At least that's the opinion of a 25 year Microsoft developer
We have to recognize that the current windows phone 7 series is at least a seriously rethinking of what a smartphone should be.
And that Kinect is really good.
What I wonder is what Microsoft will do with Kinect. We have seen its potential in hundreds of amazing hacks all over the internetz. We have even seen videos of Microsoft employees doing interesting stuff with it.
But I doubt they will bring this stuff to the PC, or anything else. Apple learned a lot from iOS and brought things "back to the mac", I seriously doubt Microsoft's ability to do the same with its exclusive product.
So we will have to wait to see what Apple will do with Kinect - type of technology.
ROFL!! Yes, there can be no doubt, it failed only because of the reasons AI wrote about.
From everything I read the Zune it actually was reasonably good hardware. They had a great music subscription system, Zune Pass. All the music in their library for $15 bucks per month, plus you get credits to buy 10 songs each month.
I think the Zune failed primarily because of Microsoft's horrible marketing and of course, Apple's market dominance (well deserved be that as it may).
-kpluck
When are people going to learn that marketing is not a cure-all if you don't have a great product?
Why do people still think shelling out $15 a month to listen to music is such a great idea?
We have to recognize that the current windows phone 7 series is at least a seriously rethinking of what a smartphone should be.
And that Kinect is really good.
I agree about Windows Phone 7 - I had a look at a colleagues and was really impressed with it. It does some things really nicely.
Kinect is pretty cool too. There's lots of other applications you could see that technology be used for.
As a side note, I've thought of another dumbest thing Microsoft ever did. If you were to look at it from the point of view of a Microsoft shareholder, I would think giving Apple money to keep them going in 1997 was pretty stupid.
Guess the long haul is over. Time now for the iPad killer - the Zune Tablet!
The fabled Zublet! ...now we'll never know...
But seriously, I do feel a bit sorry for the Zune. If it hadn't been born to such terribly unfit parents the poor thing could have amounted to something and that might have been nice to see.