Microsoft's Latest Save-The-Zune Plan: Astrology
alleyinsider.com
alleyinsider.com
The entire collection of all music on the go is worth $20/mo to me, and if anyone can pull it off, MS can.
Obviously in the current state of the world, outside of Asia, this is probably not a good product, but as WiMax starts to go mainstream, hopefully we can see similar applications.
The reason is because the Zune has no competitive advantage over the iPod. Every "cool" feature that is has is killed by its counter-intuitive software and obtuse case design. It needs something game changing, and that's the next game changing feature.
Of course, the cell phone will probably have a much better chance to make this a reality first before the Zune, but they can try.
So far, Microsoft have been a step behind Apple... every step of the way. They brought out a 30GB product just as Apple were pushing the Nano. They introduced Wifi, but Apple were the first to sell music over Wifi and brows the internet on an iPod.
And now they are battling to sell music players while Apple is concentrating on small tablets that happen to be phones and happen to be music players.
My advice to Microsoft: Just as you backstabbed your PlaysForSure partners to launch Zune, I think you should backstab your Windows Mobile partners: Buy RIM and merge Zune into RIM phones.
Special note to Ballmer: Microsft-RIM is Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more interesting than Micosoft-Yahoo. In my opinion.