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Sep 16, 09 - 05:08 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

Puh!

Sep 16, 09 - 05:09 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

Where's Solitaire?

Sep 16, 09 - 05:09 pm Comment from: iPhoner

What - no Pong?

Sep 16, 09 - 05:09 pm Comment from: Dave H

Oh well, there goes the value of AAPL.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:10 pm Comment from: iPhoner

Any decent smart phones gotta have a fart app.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:11 pm Comment from: iPhoner

Zune's not a phone - withdrawn.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:12 pm Comment from: Bizarro Jeff

LOL! The new Zune belongs on failblog.org.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:13 pm Comment from: breeze

So out of touch....

Sep 16, 09 - 05:16 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

My free Sudoku and chess games for the iPhone don't have cool car commercials like the Zune (cough, cough) HD.

Now how will I figure out which car to buy?
Oh, wait! What was that "decision maker" called?

Sep 16, 09 - 05:16 pm Comment from: theDoctor

The iPhone App store offers TONS of free apps for the taking with nary a commercial to be found.

Leave it up to Microsoft to screw up the word "free".

No minesweeper?

Sep 16, 09 - 05:18 pm Comment from: MediaXYZ

I'm sure that there will be more apps over time, but I can't think why. Why would a developer invest in such a small market?

Sep 16, 09 - 05:18 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

@breeze

Nice pun!

Sep 16, 09 - 05:18 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

Dear MS,

Only 74,991 more apps to catch up with where the App Store was last week.

Start skating!!!!

Sep 16, 09 - 05:21 pm Comment from: Tiger Leopard

In all fairness, the iPhone had about that many when it started...

"Calculator" and "Weather" are extras that you have to download from the zune app store? The original iPhone in 2007 included calculator and weather in the basic setup. This seems like a pretty desperate move on the part of MS to make their app store have 9 applications instead of 7.

I can't believe Microsoft released a wifi, touch-screen media player in 2009 that can't do email or youtube. Hello, 2006.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:23 pm Comment from: ShelbyMac

I can't wait to see what Zune Tang will have to say about this.........

also, there is no excuse for commercials during launch time on these apps. Microsoft has over 200 billion dollars, it DOES NOT need to subsidize in-house Zune app development with commercials. If I were a Zune customer, I would consider this a slap in the face.

The apps are all touch-enabled, though it looks as though only the calculator takes advantage of the accelerometer; twisting the screen into landscape mode switches the calculator to a scientific model.

They stole that idea from the iPhone and iPod touch.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:27 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget

This thing is going to miserably fail. One thing is to drive down a road and see a billboard, see a TV commercial, but on your MP3 player, no way. Who is the target market for this thing?

Sep 16, 09 - 05:30 pm Comment from: boyweho

OMG! I could NOT sit through an ad everytime I launched an app. FAIL!

Sep 16, 09 - 05:36 pm Comment from: Erk

I can understand a little add, but that took FOREVER

poor zuners :( I feel bad for them

Sep 16, 09 - 05:38 pm Comment from: Jubei

@ Erk

Don't feel bad for Zuners, this is exactly what they want.

Sep 16, 09 - 05:45 pm Comment from: ken1w

Couldn't they have made it an even 10? Solitaire could have been #10 (and very appropriate for a Windows CE -based OS).

"Weather" is an app? I thought it was a web site. How about making "Stocks" and "Sports" and "News" apps too, to help reduce the App-Lack?

Aren't somewhere around 10,000% more iPhone apps submitted to Apple every single day?
Actually, I'm beginning to find MS's pitiful efforts entertaining, in the fact that one has to wonder what these people are thinking.
I think the public is slowly coming to lose faith in MS's ability to get anything right. . . . Even if it is true that Windows 7 is markedly better than Vista, what would leave anyone to believe boasts of that, when one regards the company's history?

@tiger leopard - wrong. Apple started with a lot more than 9.
Of course when m$ hits 17 apps in a month or so uncle fester will hold a news conference and annouce the app/ ad store has 100% growth rate. The anaylsts will then spin the story and declare that the microshaft store is growing at a greater rate than Apple's app store

Sep 16, 09 - 05:54 pm Comment from: silverhawk

Does the zune have a "Intel Inside" sticker on the front?

Further proof that Microsoft hates their customers.

Sep 16, 09 - 06:00 pm Comment from: nekogami13

Some of the free apps in the pp store have ads-non distracting text banner ads that do not interfere with the opening or function of the app. They can be easily ignored.

This zune ad crap is ridiculous.

Sep 16, 09 - 06:01 pm Comment from: cptnkirk

The "More On This Topic" listings at the bottom here are just a hoot!

"What is Zune?
by JayWalker
The Zune is quickly becoming one of the most popular mp3 devices on the market." LOL!

Too funny!

Sep 16, 09 - 06:02 pm Comment from: TowerTone

"Goo Splat"-How appropriate for a Zune.

I predict a new game, "Bobbin for Ballmers", coming to a toilet near you.

Sep 16, 09 - 06:06 pm Comment from: MacIrish

If I recall, Apple's app store started with 500 apps.

It's really a clueless company run by idiots. Who thinks the ad app model will be successful? I give Ballmer another 12 months at the most, Btw, whatever happend to the big ass table?

Atrocious

Sep 16, 09 - 06:09 pm Comment from: Mormegil

Oh the humanity!!!!!

The Zune was "Crackalakin!"
The ZuneHD is "Appalakin!"

Sep 16, 09 - 06:12 pm Comment from: iPhoner

"Why have Microsoft’s Zune media players failed to make even the tiniest of dents in the iPod’s market dominance? There are multiple reasons, but one stands out: They’ve been stuck in a hopeless game of catch-up, and they’re always way, way behind ..."



http://www.pcworld.com/article/172120/microsoft_zune_still_playing_catchup.html

Sep 16, 09 - 06:16 pm Comment from: dxbydt

@ShelbyMac

ZuneTang has been oddly quiet all week long as far as I know...

[We are hell-bent and determined to allocate the talent, the resources, the money, the innovation, to absolutely become a powerhouse in the ad business... - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, July 26, 2007]

Finally, that salesman running things at MS will get rid of the 'great software' division that BG3 liked to think he had, and concentrate on what MS... HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD AT...

Marketing.

Marketing crud, that is barely dollar store quality.

Only now, there's no pretension.

Sep 16, 09 - 06:24 pm Comment from: ken1w

Microsoft already axed the rest of the Zune line, even as Apple releases a new iPod nano and even keeps the iPod classic going with a storage upgrade. By this time next year, Zune HD will be history too. Microsoft will pretend it never happened, just as it will pretend Windows Vista never happened. Perhaps then, Microsoft will try to focus on the eventually need to redo Windows from the bottom up. Without continued Windows dominance (which allows Office dominance), Microsoft is nothing.

Sep 16, 09 - 06:31 pm Comment from: MDmac

I would imagine that many companies would raise a stink if their ad was featured while a 'fart' app was being launched.

Ken1w,

Don't mean to contradict you, but...

Without continued Office dominance — which allows Windows dominance — Microsoft is nothing.

If there ever was a true multi-platform 'office', then 'MS Windows' would be finished.


Hmmm. iWork on Linux?

Can't wait.

Zune Tang, they're bashing that 'company' that you love so much! Why can't you see the Ballmer signal flashing!?

Microsoft innovation and quality is roughly the equivalent of dog poop flavoured bubble gum. They know you want it...and you're not sure why.

Here's what Zune Tang would write:

The new Zune HD is so astonishingly awesome that you don't even need to download the app to play Zune's shell game app, you just need to buy a Zune HD. Take that, MAC lemmings!

Sep 16, 09 - 06:47 pm Comment from: blah blah blah...

Is there a zunehd commercial. Like the zune I have never seen one in the wild.

Sep 16, 09 - 06:49 pm Comment from: Wingsy

Ava, who is 3, is very happy that Papa doesn't own a Zune. She has her own page of apps on my iPhone that she plays regularly (she turns it on, logs in, swipes to her page and gets going, all by herself). If she had to wait 8 to 30 seconds for an app to load she would have never maintained any interest after the 3rd session. Sometimes she hits 3 or 4 apps before she settles on one she likes, and she does it rapid-fire. Yeah, she's happy Papa doesn't own a Zune and doesn't even know it.

"Any decent smart phones gotta have a fart app."

And...what?! No tip calculators!??!? No way I'm buying one!

Seriously, though, advertising before apps isn't a big deal...depending on the app. While, yes, I don't mind waiting through an advertisement before I play Texas Hold 'em, I have to sit through an advertisement before I'm allowed to add two numbers on a calculator?!?!

Sorry, Microsoft. You blew it.

Sep 16, 09 - 07:01 pm Comment from: KingMel

@iHateThatCompany
I concur. MS Office is key along with MS Exchange. Those are the primary reasons that M$ has been able to hang on to its current level of PC marketshare. Even so, the Mac marketshare is clearly growing, and that scares M$. That is why M$ continues to do its best to make the Mac a second-class citizen when it comes to MS Office and MS Exchange email. Kill off Access for the Mac, remove Visual Basic from Office, eliminate the Mac Outlook client in favor of a POS Entourage implementation, delay the release of the XML file format and XML converters for the Mac...it goes on and on and on.

I have valid reasons for despising M$ and its products. The day that this world becomes M$-free will be a day for wild celebration.

Is anyone actually influenced by ads? I mean has anyone actually been distracted enough by an ad to actually click on the link and follow through and buy something. It make me wonder why advertisers bother.

Sep 16, 09 - 07:15 pm Comment from: Deus Ex Technica

@KingMel

"The day that this world becomes M$-free will be a day for wild celebration."

And after the celebration, significantly enhanced productivity.

Think of how quickly you can flip from app to app on iPhone/iPod touch.

Now imagine if every app launch had a 15-second ad you couldn't skip or fast forward through, followed by a "loading…" screen, before you could finally get to your app. By that time, you've forgotten what you were doing.

I can't believe MS are actually serious about this. How exactly do they think this is going to sell? I suppose this will appeal to the masochists who love the unskippable annoyances we get at the beginning of DVDs, but beyond that I'm not sure who would buy it.