, corporate VP of Microsoft’s entertainment and device division, will be leaving MS in the coming weeks to pursue personal projects. </p>
<p>J Allard will now assume full control of the Zune brand. I’m not really sure what impact this will have on anything. Allard has had success with his work on Xbox 360 and I imagine he could experience similar positivity with Zune. </p>
<p>What do you all think?</p>
<p><a href=)
by
Blake Robinson
on
February 1, 2007
Comments 
Leave Comment
Commenting Options
Enter your personal information to the left, or sign in with your Facebook account by clicking the button below.
Alternatively, you can create an avatar that will appear whenever you leave a comment on a Gravatar-enabled blog.
- Actively Discussed Posts
- Free to a good home: Booq Nerve laptop bag
326 comments - Friday Giveaway: Some EZ Grills
68 comments - Add two USB ports to a standard outlet
24 comments - School estimates $1m to remove SETI@home software
19 comments - Confirmed: Michael Jackson composed the music for Sonic The Hedgehog 3
19 comments
- There are no posts to display.
How can you call losing millions and millions of dollars on XBOX a success?
Get a grip man.
Zune AKA “iPod Killer” REALLY!
How in GODS NAME can it become an iPod Killer when you are racking up such HUGE losses? Now they are going to make a Z-Phone?
They can’t get the ZUNE RIGHT!
AND this is good for investors…. HOW!
Someone please tell me how losing money is good for the investor.
PLEASE!
@Chad
Very easy, you are not seeing the full picture, corporate investments of that caliber are seen as five year terms..
in 2007 the xbox division that lost over 3 billion will have recovered everything before the year ends, meaning that from now on it can expect profits every year in the 1-3 billions range A YEAR for the first year and from there up.
the same holds true for the zune, however, with the zune they gave it a 3 year cycle because it is actually easier to profit from it, since each unit makes money not lose it, like in the xbox division… so, by the end of those 3 years and with the faster grow that division has, it will be bringing profit around the 1-2 billion dollars a year for the first year and from there up.
If you can´t see the why now, then you are just lost…
The mobile os division started losing almost 100 millions yearly and look at it now, in about year windows will have over 50% of the marketshare coming from the last place….
that should show you something of how this plans work, of course, only company with the reach of microsoft (money, resources, power) can do such stunts, for any company below the 50 billion mark would be a suicide (read: 99% of the corporations), but not to microsoft that to this day is worth 330 billions and will reach 350-400 because the launch of the new entire plethora of new products including the main of the main, vista and office.
I think the Zune sucks.
Is that last comment really from Vince?
Anyway, I think it’s interesting how somebody leaving a company is always portrayed as a bad thing or something that might have a big impact. Often these changes are communicated internally over a long period of time, and transition phases of several months are not unusual, so I’m pretty sure anything that is happening on the Zune team right now (or in the last months) has already happened under J Allard’s supervision.
That being said, leaving Microsoft is a whole different story on its own, because once you made it up there into the ranks of upper executives, leaving Microsoft is like cashing out after winning big at a casino in Las Vegas. Just this morning I was looking at some SEC filing for 2006 from Microsoft, where they laid out the executive salaries for Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Jim Allchin etc. Jim, who as we all know just quit, got a nice $600k salary for 2006 and for his exemplary work in 2005 a nice $400k bonus. Anybody leaving Microsoft as an executive leaves as a millionaire and probably goes on to make more millions wherever he/she goes.
In other words: Bryan is leaving. So what?
Well I know you suck.
What’s a Zune?
@Sascha
I heard from someone inside microsoft that there was some scandal associated with this departure. At any rate Microsoft will have known that it wasn’t going to look good – and it doesn’t.
@Avatar
You may well be correct about xBox – Microsoft have a large user base now and should be able to make money on the gaming titles. But the next generation xBox needs to be competitive with PS3 and WII or they will slip into losses again.
But I think you are wrong about Zune. There is no way this product will achieve critical mass any time soon. It is the laughing stock of the industry right now. Perhaps the Zune II will receive better reviews, but the selling of music downloads is not likely to be anywhere near as profitable for MS as gaming titles – the infrastructure costs are quite high and sales remain pitiful according to most industry watchers.
Also, Microsoft earnings were WAY DOWN last quarter (28% down). The market was expecting a lift from Vista, but that has also been a disaster. Another fall in earnings will prompt Wall Street to start talking about cost-cutting. And loss-making ventures will be the first to go.
My guess is that Zune will not survive, in any guise, beyond the end of June.