Microsoft says Zune to sell for $249

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  • Reply 61 of 174
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DotComCTO


    Microsoft has the cash to throw around. They are trying to buy mind share. They understand that it is unbelievably hard to compete with the iPod - just as they realized that XBox had a tough road up against the PS2. However, in a few short years, the line of people waiting to get an XBox 360 was unreal...and Nintendo isn't the #2 player in the home console market anymore (in the US).



    The main reason the Xbox is doing so well is because MS bought a number of developers with top notch games in development, which gave them a couple solid exclusives. With no Halo, Xbox would have been a flop?



    Can they do something similar with Zune? Nope. It's not like they could buy up a record company and make albums Zune exclusives.



    I don't see much reason for people to buy Zune - you can't buy market share with an inferior product, especially at the same price as the current leader. Zune has a LOT of problems ahead, and pointing them out doesn't make you a fanboy.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by johnazo


    Apple will have to move fast with the real video iPod here



    Why? The screen is a little bit bigger, but MS doesn't sell any video content yet. Until you can buy video content for the Zune, most people interested in video probably won't buy it.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dac0nvu


    Sorry, but I don't see anyone walking around with a Zune yet. Microsoft may have been the first to ANNOUNCE their new product, but the launch date is...??? Some time this year? Early next year?



    November 14. It was part of this announcement.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Malligator


    The hardware doesn't matter. The company that gets rights to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin libraries will have won the war.



    Even that doesn't matter much. The serious fans ripped high quality mp3 or aac from their remastered CD's a long time ago.
  • Reply 62 of 174
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by troberts


    An article I read says that users can purchase 80 Microsoft points for $1.00, but songs will cost 79 Microsoft points. I did the math and for $79.00 you can get 80 songs from the Zune Marketplace but it will cost you $79.20 for 80 songs from the iTunes Store. Can anyone (marketing types) offer a reasonable explanation for Microsoft selling "points"? The only explanation I can come up with is that Microsoft wants to distract the consumer from knowing how much they are paying for something by not assigning an actual dollar amount on content similar to how Dave & Busters has "Power Cards".



    I believe they are using points as part of a reward system.

    Write a review on the Zune Marketplace and get 1 point.

    Create a playlist on the Zune Marketplace and get a point.

    Trade points with friends for sexual favors...etc.

    You get the idea.
  • Reply 63 of 174
    tbagginstbaggins Posts: 2,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rain


    With billions of songs being placed in the market as AAC format, it's just a matter of time before they begin to saturate the marketplace to a point where having AAC playback is a must.

    M$ will not let this happen. And therefore it won't.



    The Zune will take a big chunk out of Apple's pie. Expect Steve to not show a market share pie chart at the next WWDC.



    Dream on. According to industry analysts, the main damage Zune will do is to Microsoft's partners in the mp3 player space, i.e. Creative, Sony, iRiver, Samsung, etc. Apple should see little drop in their marketshare. But MS's former buddies will have a rather large knife protruding from their backs come November.



    You are right about one thing though- MS does hate the fact that AAC (MP4) is taking over the market. It's an open standard, developed by the MPEG group, and we all know Microsoft HATES open standards, preferring to promote its own propeitary solutions. Problem is, mp3/mp4 has kinda hit critical mass already... the horse has already left the barn, as it were.



    Best MS can do, for all its power (which is not very meaningful in this particular space- these aren't business apps we're talking about here) is break off a (relatively small) piece of the pie for themselves, mainly at its partner's expense , and pray that Apple makes a series of major mistakes. I don't really see that happening any time soon- Stevie J seems to have learned from his past.



    But hey you can't blame MS for their consistency- they always follow wherever Apple leads. 8)
  • Reply 64 of 174
    tbagginstbaggins Posts: 2,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Malligator


    The hardware doesn't matter. The company that gets rights to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin libraries will have won the war.



    Not really. The Beatles and Led Zeppelin are huge acts, but they are only two acts, and decades-old acts as well.



    It'll be a nice coup to score an exclusive with either of those groups, but it won't be a 'magic bullet' that'll suddenly change everything... that's just wishful thinking. I say this as both a Beatles and a Zep fan.
  • Reply 65 of 174
    tbagginstbaggins Posts: 2,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by applebook


    ... the problem is that the Zune appears to be a complete dud, while the xBox and the xBox 360 were/are both technologically superior to anything on the market



    Yeah, for about another six weeks. Then the 360 becomes the second most-powerful console on the market. Hello PlayStation 3.



    8)
  • Reply 66 of 174
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lkrupp


    Any bets on how soon iTunes will suddenly stop working with Windows? After the next security patch maybe?



    I'd say sometime immediately after iTunes 7 is released.
  • Reply 67 of 174
    tbagginstbaggins Posts: 2,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DotComCTO


    Microsoft has the cash to throw around. They are trying to buy mind share. They understand that it is unbelievably hard to compete with the iPod - just as they realized that XBox had a tough road up against the PS2. However, in a few short years, the line of people waiting to get an XBox 360 was unreal...and Nintendo isn't the #2 player in the home console market anymore (in the US). People would clearly say that the leaders now are Sony and Microsoft (although look for a strong comeback from Nintendo with the Wii).



    'People' wouldn't clearly say that Sony and Microsoft are the leaders now, only 'Americans' would. Simply because, the US is the only market where the Xbox did well.



    In Europe, the Xbox did far weaker business than it did in the States, and in Japan, well, there were weeks where the Playstation ONE outsold it... Xbox was (and still is) a joke over there. In contrast, the Gamecube did 'okay' in all three major worldwide markets.



    Far as who's #2 now, its closer than you'd think. Last I checked, MS sold 24 million Xboxs compared to 21 million Gamecubes sold. Of course, both are pretty insignifcant accomplishments compared to Sony's 106 million PS2s sold. For all the Xbox hype (in the US), Sony still owns the market, MS and Nintendo are light-years behind. To put it in further perspective, even in the US, the Xbox's stronghold, PS2 still outsold it 2.5 to 1 (Europe was 6 to 1, and Japan, 11 to 1. Ouch).



    Now we have the 360, and people did indeed line up to buy 'em when they launched. So what? That's a couple hundred thousand consoles, not tens of millions. People will line up to buy the Wii and the PS3 also. Launch day lines don't mean that much, because demand will always outstrip supply at launch, unless your product is simply AWFUL beyond words.



    Bottom line: Xbox was a US-only success, and did not come even close to disloding the market leader, even in the US. And that was with MS willing to lose billions on it. 360 may fare better, but not much. MS's ability to dominate markets where it can't leverage Windows or Office is much more limited than is widely believed.



    .
  • Reply 68 of 174
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rtdunham


    Does it bother anyone that MS got to market first with a bigger screen, or an fm tuner? The warm fuzzies apple generates make me expect IT to bring me the newest MP3 player features



    I said something similar in another thread, but I really think that someone would have to be a special kind of moron to choose a music player based on screen size. (assuming the screens on all players they are considering are big enough to read)



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rtdunham


    But comparing apple's current offerings and MS's, the zune is more feature-rich and has a bigger screen.



    The iPod has always been lacking feature-wise. Hasn't done it any harm. You know why? Because it's always fulfilled its primary purpose - being an excellent, extremely portable music player - very well.



    Now, if you think that Apple need a $249 iPod to achieve best-in-class video playback (i.e. wide-format, bigger screen), I fail to see how they could possibly do that without compromising on portability, which severely compromises the iPod's current primary focus. In fact, I can't see how they could achieve it for $249, period.



    Now, if you think Apple need to change the primary focus of the current HDD iPod from music to video, or to take on each equally, you need some good evidence for that. As far as I can tell, Archos haven't exactly set the world alight with their video players.



    I think Apple could make money with a portable device whose primary function is video, but it will necessarily cost more that the 80 gig ipod, and will be physically larger (to accommodate the larger screen and to maintain decent video-playback capability).
  • Reply 69 of 174
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DCQ


    Apple dominated the market for PCs with a Graphical UI for years.



    I'm not sure about that. Apple's share of the overall market was never more than about 25%.



    Trying to qualify the statement with "with a Graphical UI" is totally irrelevant. I wouldn't be surprised that if you looked at the computers with GUIs, more than 50% of them were Apples, but whether a computer had a GUI or not, it was still a computer and part of one market. One which Apple never, ever dominated.
  • Reply 70 of 174
    Complete failure.
  • Reply 71 of 174
    If for the sake of a large screen, Apple ever implements a touch-screen on the iPod in place of the click-wheel, I will not buy it.



    Those of you who've used PDAs or the 3rd G iPod know how GARBAGE those digital buttons are.



    Apple should keep the current general iPod layout for its iPod, but if (when) the company introduces a portable video player, then the product should carry a different name and have an entirely new design (large, high-res LCD, 100Gb+ storage, etc.) that is primarily designed for video.
  • Reply 72 of 174
    Holy crabcakes!... I'm going to sell my Microsoft stock... it's dead in the water, and getting deader every day.
  • Reply 73 of 174
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    MS has/will have greater costs for the Zune than Apple has. These include paying for:



    1. Larger screen component

    2. Wifi chip/antenna component

    3. FM radio component

    4. Toshiba hardware design (instead of own design)

    5. Lower production volume

    6. Greater dependence on retail outlets



    Given Apple's margins, I still find it hard to believe that these extra costs will cause MS to lose money on each unit.
  • Reply 74 of 174
    Apple should release a new ipod on nov. 14 just to fuck with microsoft.
  • Reply 75 of 174
    Zune supposedly sports a resolution of 320x240, and outputs at 640x480. The screen on the zune appears to be widescreen, is MS just going to stretch the pixels to make video fit the screen size?
  • Reply 76 of 174
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PatsFan83


    Zune supposedly sports a resolution of 320x240, and outputs at 640x480. The screen on the zune appears to be widescreen, is MS just going to stretch the pixels to make video fit the screen size?



    It's likely an optical illusion, I'm pretty sure it's a 4:3.
  • Reply 77 of 174
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM


    It's likely an optical illusion, I'm pretty sure it's a 4:3.



    yeah it is 4:3.





    I was kind of disappointed that it was $250. Unless their Marketplace sells movies and tv shows too, I might have to get an Ipod.



    and what is up with $15 for subscription! I wanted $10.
  • Reply 78 of 174
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by intlplby


    to me the only logical reason i can see for this is not to compete with the iPod, but to protect windows...



    the iPod for many people is a contributing factor to making "the switch"



    microsoft realizes this.... forevery Zune player they put out, that is one less person that gets to experience the "Apple Euphoria"



    I doubt that; I've had my iPod for almost a year, and it by itself wouldn't make me switch, since there is a version of iTunes for Windows, and neither do most Windows users that have iPods - the iPods are where Apple is making their money, not in PC marketshare. The Zune doesn't look that bad; the name sucks, and I have no use for WiFi, but the rest of the features are stand fare for WMA-based players anymore.



    Vista on the other hand, yeah, that makes me want to switch. Just waiting on Apple to drop the piss-poor Intel graphics from the Macbook and Lepoard to come out.
  • Reply 79 of 174
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM


    It's likely an optical illusion, I'm pretty sure it's a 4:3.



    Yup, there's a very powerful horizontal-vertical illusion: Vertical lines seem longer/larger than horizontal ones. These two lines are the same length:







    And one of my favorite illusions of all time, the shaded rectangles are exactly the same size and shape. Look at those rectangles - that's why the Zune screen seems stretched longer than the iPod's.







    In any case, I like the orientation. The iPod is rectangular, and it would make sense to have the screen oriented the same way as the iPod's shape.
  • Reply 80 of 174
    The resolution on the zune is the same as iPod.
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