The Zune HD is the greatest Zune till date! The gorgeous screen, the HD radio, the works. It’s all there on the new Zune. So why do I think that Microsoft is pushing it towards failure? Because it is not giving buyers and users enough incentive to buy it, use it and recommend it to other people.
The Zune is a media player that is largely eclipsed by the iPod. Being in the same league as the Apple PMP is reason enough for it to need to some serious effort behind capturing market share. However, instead of doing that Microsoft is now concentrating on a sure-to-backfire model for content distributions and third-party action. So what is the third-party support on the Zune like right now? The answer is simple – there is no third-party support in the sense that Redmond has surrounded its Zune castle with a deep and wide moat. Microsoft has not opened up the Zune to potential developers. Instead they are making their own apps and giving them away for free to the public.
Let’s switch sides to Apple for a moment. For decades, computer business owners have wondered about the proper way of selling software for mobile platforms. Most of the attempts have failed. In fact, most of the attempts to sell software of any kind have met with very little success or utter failure. With that in mind, it is a wonderful eco-system that we get to see in the iTunes App Store. Finally, a model of selling software that really works for everybody involved. Easy purchase flow and quality content ensures that customers are happy, proper revenue means developers are happy and the all round success, profitability and growth of the system means Apple’s happy too.
So when we finally have a successful solution, what do we do? If we are Google, Palm, Nokia or similar – we try our best to adopt that model. So we have the Android Marketplace, Nokia Ovi Store and the Palm Pre App Catalogue. However, if we are Microsoft, we choose to close up our platform and hand pick developers for the Zune Marketplace. Some analysts are saying that Microsoft is actually doing a good thing by not trying to compete with the 75,000 apps that Apple has for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. But that is really not a good idea if you ask me.
Users like you and me want usability and options. Lots of options to choose from is a good thing in such cases. Instead we have Microsoft giving us only a few apps to play with on our new Zunes. The apps are well made, no doubt about that. But the annoyance kicks in before the app launches.
Microsoft has chosen another failure-bound model to support its app development – forced advertising. Before an app launches, it will show you a fullscreen ad (that cannot be skipped) that can delay your app launching by anything between 20-30 seconds. The ads actually play before the app is launched and not during.
If Internet history has proved anything, it is this – electronic media consumers DO NOT like forced ads. They don’t even like ads that are nonintrusive.
Apple has made it quite easy for itself though. Its phone and PMP both can use the same app store. The entry point is a free application that is used by almost each and every one of its customers. Microsoft will not be able to reach this kind of integration for obvious reasons. But it can at least give the Zune a little more functionality so that consumers have more reasons for wanting to buy it.
Sunday 20 September 2009
Is Microsoft Pushing the Zune HD Towards Yet Another Fail?
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