Briefly: Reflections on some time spent with Zune

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Comments

  • Reply 81 of 115
    wait, "Hello from Seattle"??? it doesn't say that on the back. Is he sure that wasn't just on the demo units? It isn't going to be on the official Zunes.



  • Reply 82 of 115
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by guinness


    So what about the education market? At one time, Apple owned that, now it seems like it's mainly Dell. Apple tried for the business market, but other than the Lisa, they seemed not to make much of a go at it.



    Apple does well at marketing Macbooks and iPods, and to the graphical market. Probably 1/4 of every laptop I see is an Apple, and the white earbuds are hard to miss. As for the Zune, I saw a video demo of one, and liked the GUI, it was clean and a bit different from the rest of the DAP's, If Microsoft can get the player/PC integration down, like iTunes/iPod, then many aspects are equal - the software synchronization with iTunes is key for me, but sometimes I wish the iPod did a bit more, and offered more customization. There is iPodWizard, but it is awfully convoluted. Screw the iPod games, Apple should offer iPod themes though ITMS.



    They tried with the Apple III, but that was rushed out the door and had many problems. It didn't succeed.



    The Lisa was also a failure. It cost $8,ooo, about $20,000 in todays dollars. Far too much.



    The Mac was put out to try to salvage some of the Lisa's R&D, as well as some of the parts. It was far less capable than the Lisa.



    Job's insistence that it not be an open design almost killed it too from the very start.



    If it weren't for Aldos Pagemaker, and the Hp laser printer, which evolved into the Apple Laserwriter, Apple probably wouldn't be here today.
  • Reply 83 of 115
    So let me get this straight. If MS sells 3 million units at a $50 loss on each, then how excited can they be at the prospect of paying 150 million dollars to do that????
  • Reply 84 of 115
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ReCompile


    So let me get this straight. If MS sells 3 million units at a $50 loss on each, then how excited can they be at the prospect of paying 150 million dollars to do that????



    it depends on why they would be willing to take the loss in the first place.



    Why has MS been willing to lose $1.2 billion on their games division each year they have been selling the XBox?



    Because it represents a business that they feel they MUST have some control over. Networked game play which arises from that is something MS considers to be a required possession. It also leads to other areas, such as payments to play, etc.



    They would be needing the Zune to succeed because without a strong player in the market, WMA might fail. That would be a disaster for them. They would lose any possibility to remain relevant in the media market. This would cause them to lose any chance of royalties from its use, the inclusion of it from any other hardware and software.



    MPEG 4 uses MS technologies as well as those from Apple. If MS lost WMA, that would never happen again.



    This would severely restrict MS's growth in the downloadable content market for phone companies, cable companies, satellite companies, etc. There is big bucks waiting there.



    MS is always willing to lose some of those built-in monopoly profits on new ventures, if they feel they need to expand in that direction.



    It took them years for their portable (now Mobile) OS to mature into the versions it is in today. They lost a vast sum during that time, and there is no evidence that even now, with the popularity of their mobile versions, that they are even breaking even. But they deem it to be far too important to not allow someone else to own that market as Palm looked to be doing, and that now Symbian is doing in Europe.



    They don't want to feel as though they are being boxed in. The market for their OS's, and Office are growing, but at the rate the industry is growing, no faster. They also feel as though that growth may be limited by Linux, and possibly even the Mac OS, so they want to move in other directions.



    No doubt they also feel as though computers are going to move further off the desktop, and that they must move with it. The tablet is so far at least, a failure, having captured no more than 0.5% of the market. so they try everything they can, therefore Origami (spelling?).



    Don't be surprised to see them try many different products in many different markets, hoping that some will stick.



    Some will.
  • Reply 85 of 115
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ReCompile


    So let me get this straight. If MS sells 3 million units at a $50 loss on each, then how excited can they be at the prospect of paying 150 million dollars to do that????



    Steve Ballmer will be very excited to do it and he will be touching you in one or many places and squirting stuff at you. You think I'm kidding, right? 8)

    http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2131



    Come on, who doesn't like 150 million dollars worth of squirting going on?
  • Reply 86 of 115
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut


    how do you come up with this stuff? hehehe. so funny. ...one of my favorite iPod engravings is "this device is a bomb" and "leave me here. save my ipod"



    Heh. Sometimes this sh*t just writes itself. I have no control over the inspiration and bursts of humour. Luckily I do have control over my bowels and bladder.



    Sometimes the iintarweb is one big, disturbing comedy show. With some informatio- youtube- eao - educatshionamal- googalinformation. And pr0n. Don't forget the pr0n.



    "Leave me here. Save my ipod" is gold



    ..................

    ..................
  • Reply 87 of 115
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sunilraman


    Heh. Sometimes this sh*t just writes itself. I have no control over the inspiration and bursts of humour. Luckily I do have control over my bowels and bladder.



    Sometimes the iintarweb is one big, disturbing comedy show. With some informatio- youtube- eao - educatshionamal- googalinformation. And pr0n. Don't forget the pr0n.



    "Leave me here. Save my ipod" is gold



    ..................

    ..................



    You know, you really do have too much time on your hands. I thought you were finally working.
  • Reply 88 of 115
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross


    You know, you really do have too much time on your hands. I thought you were finally working.



    Meh. Quiet, you.
  • Reply 89 of 115
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut


    Well, quite honestly, if I wanted to make a fair review I would first and foremost make sure I have enough battery life to conduct all the tests and then report the amount of time the battery lasted. Kind of like iLounge reviews where they tell you know long can you expect a full iPod charge to last. But saying "oh, the battery went out. can't do much about it" I know they may have not had a Zune unit for a long while, but just sounds lazy.



    It's stupid to make accusations of laziness when you don't know the circumstances of using it. From the article, I got the impression that this guy was just handed a Zune and allowed to play with it for a few minutes. The battery ran out. Is it somehow dishonest or biased to report that fact? Is he supposed to pretend it didn't happen?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by guinness


    So what about the education market? At one time, Apple owned that



    And they lost market share there because MS was able to leverage their monopoly in the business and home spaces. People use a PC at work, so they get one at home, so they insist their kid uses one at school. What does that have to do with the iPod market (besides demonstrate that monopolies are hard to overturn and fairly easy to expand)?
  • Reply 90 of 115
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by minderbinder


    From the article, I got the impression that this guy was just handed a Zune and allowed to play with it for a few minutes. The battery ran out. Is it somehow dishonest or biased to report that fact? Is he supposed to pretend it didn't happen?



    The problem is that reporting this fact gives absolutely no information one way or the other about the Zune's battery life. If I fully charge my iPod, use it for 20 hours straight and then give it to someone to play with for a while, the battery will run out. So what?



    If you haven't had the opportunity to play with a fully-charged Zune, you shouldn't be reporting anything regarding battery life.
  • Reply 91 of 115
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. H


    The problem is that reporting this fact gives absolutely no information one way or the other about the Zune's battery life. If I fully charge my iPod, use it for 20 hours straight and then give it to someone to play with for a while, the battery will run out. So what?



    If you haven't had the opportunity to play with a fully-charged Zune, you shouldn't be reporting anything regarding battery life.



    He wasn't reporting battery life, he was stating what happened when he was using it.



    If someone gave me an iPod to try, and people here wanted me to give my impressions, and the battery ran out when I was attempting something, I would say that I couldn't try that because the battery ran out.



    It's not a report on battery life, merely an explanation of why I couldn't try that feature at the time.
  • Reply 92 of 115
    ajmasajmas Posts: 597member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut


    how do you come up with this stuff? hehehe. so funny.



    one of my favorite iPod engravings is "this device is a bomb" and "leave me here. save my ipod"



    Even better, based on the experience of the guy on the WoW forums who had a plane force land because of his iPod: "My last iPod got me treated as a terrorist".
  • Reply 93 of 115
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ajmas


    Even better, based on the experience of the guy on the WoW forums who had a plane force land because of his iPod: "My last iPod got me treated as a terrorist".



    "Hello from Tehran"
  • Reply 94 of 115
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
  • Reply 95 of 115
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by minderbinder


    It's stupid to make accusations of laziness when you don't know the circumstances of using it. From the article, I got the impression that this guy was just handed a Zune and allowed to play with it for a few minutes. The battery ran out. Is it somehow dishonest or biased to report that fact? Is he supposed to pretend it didn't happen?



    well, we don't know for sure.



    it's stupid to say that what i'm saying is stupid, specially because neither you or i have a way of knowing, from what the article says, if it's what i'm saying or if it was what you're thinking. got that?



    so i'll just stick to my idea that the review sounds lazy and fanboyist and you can think it's honest, unbiased and professional. sounds good?
  • Reply 96 of 115
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Woody56292


    wait, "Hello from Seattle"??? it doesn't say that on the back. Is he sure that wasn't just on the demo units? It isn't going to be on the official Zunes.







    that's because once Zunes are assembled in Asia, they drop them by Steve Balmer's house, where he personally squirts the words "Hello from Seattle" on each and every new zune.
  • Reply 97 of 115
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut


    well, we don't know for sure.



    Well, if we don't know for sure, it's stupid to make accusations, isn't it?



    If you're checking out something and the battery dies, I don't understand how reporting that is "fanboyist". A battery dying is a fact, not an opinion.



    And it still doesn't make sense why you'd accuse an article of bias when half the things he says are positive or neutral.



    (but I guess I shouldn't be surprised to hear that coming from a lazy fanboy )
  • Reply 98 of 115
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut


    well, we don't know for sure.



    it's stupid to say that what i'm saying is stupid, specially because neither you or i have a way of knowing, from what the article says, if it's what i'm saying or if it was what you're thinking. got that?



    so i'll just stick to my idea that the review sounds lazy and fanboyist and you can think it's honest, unbiased and professional. sounds good?



    Well, one one reads the original article, one can get a good idea of what is being said.



    You seen to have some problem with this simple thing, though I don't know why.



    He's reporting a fact. That's All. No representation about battery life was made. It was an observation that when he wanted to try something, he couldn't, because the battery ran out.



    What's the problem here?
  • Reply 99 of 115
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by minderbinder


    Well, if we don't know for sure, it's stupid to make accusations, isn't it?



    If you're checking out something and the battery dies, I don't understand how reporting that is "fanboyist". A battery dying is a fact, not an opinion.



    And it still doesn't make sense why you'd accuse an article of bias when half the things he says are positive or neutral.



    (but I guess I shouldn't be surprised to hear that coming from a lazy fanboy )



    boy, you sure are upset i don't agree with you, huh?



    i stand by my opinion, lighten up stupid (to borrow from your book)



    cheers
  • Reply 100 of 115
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross


    Well, one one reads the original article, one can get a good idea of what is being said.



    You seen to have some problem with this simple thing, though I don't know why.



    He's reporting a fact. That's All. No representation about battery life was made. It was an observation that when he wanted to try something, he couldn't, because the battery ran out.



    What's the problem here?



    wait wait wait, i'm just stating my opinion here. i said that it sounds fanboyist and lazy and that's it. to me it's just lazy, not to mention unfair, to write down an article for a device when you didn't just have enough time and battery life to check it out. relax mel.



    who's having problems with simple things, huh? just an opinion. what the article says is clear. but regardless of what it says, and regardless of the time the battery lasted, i can think whatever i want to think about the reviewer.
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