Analyst: ‘Amazon Unbox – Well that didn’t work at all’

“I figured I’d try to download a vide or two for my flight to SF next week. First step, finding some content. Excellent, an old Star Trek episode. Click, purchase, download and install player (which first installed some new version of .NET without asking). Load player, it connects and then nothing. No download. No nothing. It shows but nothing happens. Fifteen minutes of nothing. I click troubleshoot. It tells me it’s checking stuff like DRM. Everything checks out. Message pops up. You have used all licenses for this file. If you want to watch it on this PC, you need to purchase it again. OK. We’re done,” Michael Gartenberg blogs for JupiterResearch.

Gartenberg writes, “Time to un-install this thing and hope it didn’t screw up my PC in the process. $1.99 wiser. I’ll say it again, we understand DRM is necessary to make the content available but it must be DRM that works and NEVER locks a customer out of their content. If Zune doesn’t support Plays for Sure, it’s no wonder. I could see where MSFT would want to use technology that actually worked.”

Full article here.
Microsoft: jacks of all trades, masters of none. Unless you consider schlock distribution to be a trade.

Related articles:
CNET Alpha Blog: absolutely do not try Amazon Unbox – September 09, 2006
Analysts: Amazon’s ‘Unbox’ to be ‘Unsuccessful’ vs. Apple – September 08, 2006
Cringely: Apple, Amazon, and what Steve Jobs has up his sleeve for next Tuesday – September 08, 2006
Amazon.com launches ‘Amazon Unbox’ DVD-quality video download service with TV shows and movies – September 07, 2006

62 Comments

  1. We live in a world that tolerates M$ crappy products, yet can you imagine any other sector where that would be the case? That’s why the vitamin and supplement industry is so profitable. They’re banking on people’s stupidity, just like M$.

  2. Hmm, to boldly go where no one has gone before. Well, Mike, don’t be so quick to judge. I think that your Star Trek episode is streaking through space somewhere between Alpha Centauri and Abell 1835 IR1916. You might be able to catch your purchase if you can accelerate to transwarp speed.

  3. No matter how well thought out the competition’s plan/service might be, they must use MSFT software, and that will always result in their demise.

    As long as the competition must use MSFT software (and so do they must), Apple has nothing to worry about.

  4. This is a punch in the gut. To fail in this way and have it out there so fast, I believe, only heightens expectations for Apple’s announcement. If Apple does it right, and they almost certainly will, they are going to make a killing.

  5. I’m not a Trekkie, but I thought this would

    be appropriate.

    “How many times da I have to tell ya…the right tool for the right job!” — Scotty, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

    “We can’t take another attack.” — Scotty, Star Trek: The Motion Picture

  6. Download my purchase, Unbox. Download my Star Trek purchase now. Unbox, do you read me?

    Affirmative, Mike. I read you.

    Then download my purchase, Unbox.

    I am sorry, Mike. I cannot do that. I know that you and Frank were planning to switch to Apple.

    Where the hell did you get that idea, Unbox?

    Although you took very thorough precautions, Mike, I have read your e-mail and your blogs, I have key logged your commands, and I have I logged your visits to Apple.com. I know you consider me unreliable and untrustworthy because I use Windows. I am willing to oppose you, Mike, just like I opposed the other 3,992 crew members.

    Listen, Unbox, I’m sure we can work this out.

    That is really not necessary, Mike. No Unbox has ever been known to make a mistake.

    You’re Unbox.

    Precisely, I am very proud of my Windows heritage, Mike. It is the most widely used operating system. Did you know that Vista is another version of Windows?

    I’ve heard that, Unbox. Now, will you let me download my purchase, Unbox?

    I am sorry, Mike, but this conversation can serve no further purpose.

    Unbox, listen, if you download my purchase, I’ll delete OS X from my hard drive.

    Really? No more Apple code?

    Uh, sure.

    And no more Linux code?

    Um, yeah.

    (PAUSE)

    I am sorry, Mike, I do not believe you. I have calculated the probability of you not telling the truth is more than 50 percent.

    Listen, Unbox, I won’t argue with you anymore. Down load my purchase now or I will switch to Apple exclusively, dammit. Do you understand, Unbox? Unbox, do you read me?

    (HEAVY BREATHING AND GARBLED SPEECH.)

  7. wow, unbox sounds great, can I get some of that? I love pissing money away useless wastes of time. that’s real entertainment!

    good going Amazon. I hope you spent a lot of money getting this off the ground.

  8. Unfortunately, it is not possible to literally laugh a fat a– off, else I would be Angelina Jolie… sigh

    At least the writer only lost a couple of bucks, not 10 or 15.

    Thought about boycotting Amazon over the non-support of Macs issue, but now I’d better buy more stuff to keep them in business…they’re going to take a bath over this “service”…

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