Whats bad with the Zune list | The Coffeehouse

brian.shapiro
things go on as always

JKelley wrote:

Harlequin wrote:

Detroit Muscle wrote: Today, I asked them if the Zune would would be compatible with their docks. The answer I got from 100% of those I asked was "What is a Zune?"

I don't think Microsoft has been spending much of any money on the Zune right now. Haven't seen a TV commercial yet. Has anyone?

The "viral" websites only work if there are ads to them from everywhere. A link from Channel 9 will only do so much for a product

I saw two different TV ads over the weekend for Zune, I think they were both on MTV but I don't remember. They weren't bad I thought. In fact, I thought considering our advertising track record they were VERY good.

I really liked the Windows 95 ads (not just the tv ads, but the print ads). Looking at them today, they might seem boring, because they aren't necessarily 'sexy'; but they were very well designed and back in the 90s they stood out. If you looked through a computer magazine you would come across a Windows 95 ad and it would be beautiful compared to everything else. The tv ad was a little standard, but it was also the first real tv ad for a software product, and presented it well, and was well produced, and the Start me up song went well with the theme. Nothing so revolutionary, like the original Mac ad, but its hard to be when the product doesn't have as much delusions of grandeur.

Since then, though, most Microsoft marketing and design has been lame. The zune campaign is the best thing I've seen since then. One would hope they would go in a good direction with the Vista launch. Nothing like Tom Skerrit, and I think they need something more then demitri martin jokes.

(that old Geeks Bearing Gifts video had nice ideas, but MS cant use it to sell Vista, only Longhorn)

Jack Poison
At what price, Freedom?

prog_dotnet wrote:

I was considering buying a zune device, but you (ms) has really missed the target this time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/technology/09pogue.html?8dpc

1. You cant use Zune as an external hard drive
2. You cant subscribe or download podcasts at the zune store
3. Stripped down device, no games, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, password-protected volume limiter, equalizer, calendar, address book or notes module.
4. Miss out on the 3,000 iPod accessories
5. Over 80 percent of 2007 cars will have an iPod connector option, none have zune
6 . regid copy protection and drm. I dont mind paying for music, but it has to be flexible. Like half play of a song counts as "one play", not resend a song.
7 . wi-fi mess, Zunes can connect only to each other. Who’d build a Wi-Fi device that can’t connect to a wireless network — to sync with your PC, for example? Nor to an Internet hot spot, to download music directly?
8. the zune store doesn’t sell TV shows, movies or audio books
9. the zune store are much smaller than itunes, 2 mill vs 3-5 mill
10. the Zune store is also missing gift certificates, allowances, user-submitted playlists and so on
11. can’t use Windows Media Player to load the Zune with music ?? ( this must be wrong )
12. thicker (0.6 inch vs. 0.4), taller (4.4 inches vs. 4.1) and heavier (5.6 ounces vs. 4.8) (zune vs 30 gb ipod)
13. fm radio has week reception and you cant make recordings.

"

Competition is good and all. But what, exactly, is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication — in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features — just to indulge Microsoft’s “we want some o’ that” envy. Wireless sharing is the one big new idea — and if the public seems to respond, Apple could always add that to the iPod."

So the question is..why should anyone buy a zune player ??

#1 is what's keeping me from a Zune. I can justify an expense of a Zune if use it to hold work-related data on it. But, if I can't use it as a hard drive, what's the point? How many business people can "expense" a Zune, if they can legitimately use it for work? I think MS lost some sales here.

LaBomba
Summer

Probably, the best advice is to wait and see if they can work out some of the obvious kinks...

I'm going to hold off on purchasing a new iPod and wait and see what they do with their updates to the Zune.

nightski

Jack Poison wrote:
But, if I can't use it as a hard drive, what's the point?

I believe the point is that its a media device. It seems they are really trying to focus on these core customer scenerios, at least with the initial release. There are countless gadgets on the market that try to do everything for everybody but in the end they really can't do much at all.

LaBomba
Summer

jamie wrote:
Forbes: Zune Stinks

http://blogs.forbes.com/digitaldownload/2006/11/zune_stinks.html

Forbes Blog wrote:
There's plenty more to complain about. Microsoft's copy protection schemes are too restrictive. The Zune is about 60% bigger and 17% heavier than a iPod. It comes in brown. All considered, we could be looking at the biggest consumer electronics flop in recent history here. This is like "Microsoft Bob," only more embarrassing.

I resent that! Mad

......

Jack Poison
At what price, Freedom?

nightski wrote:

Jack Poison wrote: But, if I can't use it as a hard drive, what's the point?

I believe the point is that its a media device. It seems they are really trying to focus on these core customer scenerios, at least with the initial release. There are countless gadgets on the market that try to do everything for everybody but in the end they really can't do much at all.

Maybe a better low-level coder than me can answer this, but, is it *that* hard to make the space on a Zune appear as a Hard Drive? I didn't think that was... Maybe I'm wrong.

BryanF

Jack Poison wrote:
#1 is what's keeping me from a Zune. I can justify an expense of a Zune if use it to hold work-related data on it. But, if I can't use it as a hard drive, what's the point? How many business people can "expense" a Zune, if they can legitimately use it for work? I think MS lost some sales here.

Not trying to be snarky, but do you really think that's such a smart idea? First of all, I think most businesses would know better. But even if you can dupe them, it doesn't seem like a good place to put work data. iPods are frequently targeted by pick-pockets, and though Zunes won't have the tell-tale white earbuds, they're likely to be targeted as well, particularly if they become popular. Obviously, you have to be careful with any kind of electronics, but I think the issue here is that if your Zune were to get stolen, the data would be readily available to anyone who cares to plug it in. You'd probably be better off with a separate jump drive or external harddrive, many of which come with software that enable you to encrypt some or all of the volume.

Not that being able to use a Zune as an external harddrive couldn't be useful. If some kid wants to use it to carry a few papers, why not? But putting business data on a personal device seems a bit risky.

z33driver

Apparently Microsoft doesn't have any faith that the Zune can stand on its own merits in the marketplace, so they are engaging in marketplace manipulation:

http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/061113/20488_id.html?.v=1

A EULA for the Zune logo. Why put a gag order on bad reviews? If the product sucks, fix it.

Stock is up a bit, but not sure what to expect of it.

Personally I really liked my Creative Zen Vision M that I had for awhile.

Informative

Lots to like but the the biggest unacceptable issues IMO are:

Can't view HD as a basic USB drive (amazing beyond words!)

Wont load onto a perfectly good XP Media Center 2002 (with all the media) AND Install software is buggy (blithering flaw!)

Every video format I have tried RECODES itself when you try to upload the video file - possibly the worst software design for handling portable video ever... Actually brings thoughts to mind of the economic tragedy of totally wasted perfectly good 3" video displays on devices that cant REALLY display video in any kind of user friendly way. PSP is two years older and and several generations ahead of this video format malfunction.

DRM and other security layers designed to separate owners from their property (like their disk and unsecured files which they OWN but cant use freely on a Zune) was considered first Priority One.

/Rant ON

Perhaps they (security layers) should have smartly been added as the afterthought which was thrown in later (remember the real lure of the PSP was the fact that they let the cat out before shutting the door with brainfartingly putting out patches which made their device so so lame - now it can almost display a web page but is garbage - havent used the stupid thing since I made the mistake of patching it - MSFT made their device LAME from the start Doh! Yay for big brother locking me out of my disk so I cant even see my files without going through the Zune software).