Zune
The simple hardware design, the ease of use on the interface, the tight integration between the hardware and the iTunes software - these are some of the main components of what makes the iPod such a success. So it’s no surprise that Microsoft’s Zune copies each of these ideas wholesale, even going so far as to abandon their existing PlaysForSure program by creating a whole new incompatible type of DRM.
The results? Well firstly there’s no podcasting support, so already they’ve lost the support of many a tech evangelist, especially since most of them are producing podcasts themselves. Then there’s the couple of bucks they’re giving to Universal Music for every player sold, because they could potentially be used for holding pirated music. It’s not a good start to immediately brand all your customers as thieves. And as for that new type of DRM, well you just pissed off all your other partners who you’ve been selling protection systems to for the past couple of years.
So in a triple header Microsoft managed to piss off tech evangelists, freedom fighters (and those who don’t like to be called thieves) and manufacturers of other music players. It’s an almost unprecedented level of bone-headedness. But yet somehow they just went from nothing to the number two music player in North America (even if it is trailing Apple by tens of millions of units). If that’s not a sign of the might of the Microsoft, I don’t know what is.
