“‘Welcome to the social’ is the tagline on store posters spotted for Zune, Microsoft’s personal digital music player, which arrives in stores Nov. 14,” Emily Burg reports for MediaPost.
Burg reports, “That concept plays on Zune’s sharing functionality, which allows users to transfer songs to each other over a WiFi network. While not quite a category-killer application, it is a feature that distinguishes Zune from the ubiquitous Apple iPod. Another notable feature: Microsoft appears nowhere near the Zune brand name.”
“‘It’s very curious that Microsoft is distancing Zune from Microsoft and Windows at a time when the company is spending hundreds of millions to launch Vista, which has music as a huge part of the experience,’ said Michael Gartenberg, analyst with JupiterResearch. Vista is the operating system Microsoft is scheduled to unveil in January,” Burg reports.
Burg reports, “One reason for that strategy may be the disconnect between Microsoft’s reputation as a corporate monolith and the 18-24 hipster demographic that Zune hopes to attract…”
“‘Zune is a new brand for Microsoft. The company is not trying to distance itself, per se,’ the spokesperson said. ‘Each new product has its own brand personality.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s brand personalities:
• Windows: inelegant, counterintuitive, upside-down and backwards, insecure, fake Macintosh.
• Office: bloated suite of applications repackaged frequently with added bloat to pad company coffers.
• Zune: brown squirter (repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat) that marks Microsoft’s umpteenth try at cracking iPod+iTunes’ dominance.
• Xbox: money-losing failure that Microsoft’s PR department attempts to disguise as a success.
• MSN TV: money-losing failure that Microsoft’s PR department attempts to disguise as a success.
• PlaysForSure: failure that Microsoft’s PR department doesn’t even bother trying to disguise as a success.
• Origami UMPC: joke.
• Internet Explorer: The world’s worst and most insecure web browser. The bane of web developers everywhere.
• MS Bob: what happens when Microsoft tries to come up with an original idea.
Burg continues, “Weak consumer anticipation accompanies the Zune release. While blogs buzz with talk about what Apple’s next product might be, and backlogs for new iPods have been known to occur around peak retail times, there’s been little clamor for Zune.”
“Microsoft is working with national electronics retailers on in-store marketing strategies, but the sheer dominance of the range of iPod products guarantees that iPod will have more retail real estate,” Burg reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward S.” for the heads up.]
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MSBob – he may be the only ZUNE owner out there!
MDN: early, as in early-death for ZUNE
“Microsoft is distancing Zune from Microsoft and Windows”
They should also get distance from Bill Gates and Steve Balmer….
What microsoft product that is not copied from another company has been a success for microsoft?
… voting day makes MDN acerbic …
A friend of mine has had to ship his X-Box 360 back, again, this will be his third machine, pathetic. His OS is Microcrap’s server addition, apparently it’s safer. But then he also argues that Aspartame is safer than corn syrup. Obvisiously when I need sage advice on food additives and computers he is not someone I would ever ask. Of course owning a Mac means I don’t need any advice when it comes to computers.
Looks like the love child of Ballmer and Gates is a lil’ freak of nature. Better send it to the state home, rather than embarass the family.
The precursor to breaking up the company. It will be far easier if their products have their own brand identity.
You forgot to list “Ultimate TV” DVR. The only thing that MS ever got right. Then they suddenly gave up on it. I’m still using my Ultimate TV box, which still kicks Tivo’s butt (I also have a Tivo)
*yes… I have no life to speak of besides watching TV ; )
It’s been pointed out elsewhere as well, but it’s worth repeating: In the UK, ‘the social’ is a term used for the money the Govt. pays you when you’re unemployed. ‘Social Security’. ‘The Dole’, ‘the rock’n’roll’, ‘the Social’. So ‘welcome to the social’, would mean ‘welcome to the unemployment line’. Appropriate, hopefully. I hope M*Soft try using that line in Britain, go on Bill – pleeeeeeese!
“Vista is the train wreck Microsoft is scheduled to unveil in January,” Burg meant to say.
I think the reason MS became so big was not great programming or OS design; it was being smart enough to make deals with all the PC maufacturers to get their stuff put on everybody’s PCs _by default_. I have yet to see something that MS makes really impress me as unique and groundbreaking.
On the other hand, at least Apple innovated its way out of the hole in the 90s and is now reaping the benefits. Let’s all just hope it doesn’t get too big for its boots.
This MS Zune squirting device and brand is just another typical MS escapade: nothing innovative to be seen. Same with Vista most likely.
Go Apple.
“Welcome to the social disease.” What will the first Zune virus be called?
Apple releases iPod under Apple name. Why?
Apple = Quality = No Viruses = Brand Loyalty
Microsoft releases Zune under its own name. Why?
Microsoft = Thieves = Poor Quality = viruses, spyware and bloat = No Brand Loyalty
Zune users do not realize that they will be wirelessly transmitting viruses to all of their friends. Luckily, those viruses will not be spread to any iPods.
If Apple does make a wireless iPod down the road, will it be able to block communications from Zune? I hope so.
“3 plays or 3 days” for a shared song doesn’t sound very social. Old perverted men squirting pictures of their zounes with their Zunes doesn’t sound good either.
Zune is the #1 best seller on Amazon.com’s list of mp3 players!
Can Redmond really be buying them all up in advance?
Yikes!
“Zune is the #1 best seller on Amazon.com’s list of mp3 players!”
This shouldn’t be surprising…where else can you buy them right now?
wasn’t vista supposed to be released last week originally to some big customers, and then delayed to this week? where is it???
This is soooo funny. The handwriting is on the wall folks. Inside of two years MS is going to dump the Zune faster than… – something really hot. No rhyme, no reason, just blip – gone. Anybody want to start a pool? By Cmas 2008 MSZune (how’s that for distancing Zune from MS), will be nowhere on the planet. Just a few poor souls tying to make the obsolete and discontinued item seem valuable on eBay so they don’t feel so bad for owning five of them.
The weird thing is, I’m not sure if simple success will dictate when MS is going to dump the Zune. They may be doing just fine, relatively speaking, and blip – gone.
On the other hand, it all makes sense coming from a company that told Apple that Apple just didn’t get it – that quality and user experience are irrelavent. Makes total sense. Dam I’m glad I avoid MS like the plague that it is.
Hm. Just like XBOX. Better not disappoint people by telling them its an MS product.
MS caters to businesses, not people.
I was at Target during lunch and saw one of the Zune kiosks- it had two Zunes as well as some accessories. There wasn’t any big sign proclaiming that the Zune was from Microsoft nor was evident on the accessory packaging that they were from Microsoft- the rather amusing thing is that when I went to use the Zune, I tried to spin the navigation “wheel”- I guess the iPod habit is hard to break.
Zune is not the bestselling mp3 player at Amazon. The black 30GB 5.5G iPod is #1. The black Zune is at #9. For comparison, #10 is the last generation white 30GB iPod.
The brown Zune is at #30; just ahead of the last generation white 2GB Nano.
The white Zune is at #50. For comparison, the 512KB white shuffle is at #38.
7 of the top 8 are iPods; Sandisk 2GB squeezes in at #4. 17 of the top 25 are iPods, including older generation Nanos and iPods.
Oops! The white Zune is actually #53. Moved it up 3 spaces by accident.
The white Macbooks are consistently the #1 and #2 selling notebook computers at Amazon.
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“Welcome to the social”?
Sounds like a circle-jerk.
Thanks, “Mark”! I was going to go check the assertion made by “Tanya Turner” (above), for it didn’t sound credible to ME, at least!
But then you did the work FOR me. Thanks so much!
Long live the truth: The Zune (iTurd) is already DOA! (And just wait until the REST of the tune-playing, movie-watching, book-reading, podcast-listening world realizes that the iTurd barely does HALF of these things. Whoo-Hoo!)
I asked my oldest (high school 10th grader) daughter what she and her friends thought about the Zune…I kid you not, she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. That was Sunday…2 days ago.
I showed her some Zune related info on the web, and the youtube posted Ads.
She didnt know what some of the ads were supposed to mean. (ie product disconnect)
I asked her again, today (she just stopped by my office on her way home), if she talked to any friends about the Zune, she said yes, but no one knew what she was talking about!
What happens when you have the next iPod killer and nobody knows about it? Maybe she is not the target audience, but she does have a 2d gen iPod (has had it for 4 years), and most of her friends have some flavor of iPod.
zac