CrunchGear

Why did they send you this letter?

Was it in response to something you had previously sent them, or is this an open letter to all gadget/tech blogs?

huh?

Let’s list this for ease of reference:

1. Wireless access to the Zune Marketplace
2. The ability to “Buy from FM” radio
3. Stream music from the Zune Marketplace wirelessly to the player
4. Subscribe to music “channels”
5. Wirelessly sync their device to their PC
6. Zune customers have the ability to get intelligent recommendations and custom channels from the Zune software based on the music that you and your friends are actually listening to. 7. Zune included an FM tuner and wireless capabilities into all the devices

So let’s look at each.

1. I guess that’s cool and available only on the iPod Touch so I guess that’s a plus, but the negative is that it’s connected to the Zune Marketplace and not the iTunes Store. THAT would be cool!

2. I think that’s a cool feature and woudl welcome that on the iPod but honestly since I bought the iPod I haven’t listened to radio that much so it may not impact me as much as I might at first hope.

3. This works, I would think, only with a subscription model of some sort, I mean can I select a song, which I would like to see, or isit like radio, which isn’t so compelling, but I also don’t want the battery drain of some constant connection through WiFi. So yeah, like Comcast “On Demand” it’s cool when you look at it but you never really end up using it. Or maybe that’s me!

4. No idea what this means. Maybe you do that to listen to what ever they send like a battery hungry radio?

5. Apple supports that on the iPhone, no idea why not on the Touch, but it’s decision thet’ve made not a technical or platform issue. I’d like to see it!

6. My friends that use the Zune? That would be “0″.

7. Yeah, FM is cool fo rmy morning NPR on the train. Apple’s FM costs me another $59 or something. I guess the question is othen of overall value if you increase the cost of the iPod by $59 for FM and then compare.

Lastly, the wrote “The bottom line is, we believe that software and services are really the foundation for creating innovative experiences in this space, and that’s where you’ll continue to see Zune differentiate from competitors.”

The sad fact is that they have done everything BUT that. The iPod came out long before and the best MS could do was add FM and WiFi? They sofware innovative experience was some strange new currency? The Zune for all the leadtime they had didn’t innovate, other than the above, and after all this time hasn’t yet provided a compelling enough reason for me to move.

It’s fine music player but I think that train, again unless you have a REALLY REALLY cool offereing, has left the station!

“Why did they send you this letter?”

CrunchGear is a Microsoft propaganda tool.

“Apple is forcing people to pick and choose”

Isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black? Microsoft pretty much forces Zune owners to own a Windows-based computer. At least Apple has the decency to let Windows users use iTunes.

The only reason Apple finally decided to let itunes come to windows was to DRAMATICALLY increase market share. If only OSX users had access to itunes they would have less of an install base. Let’s be real here: Mac OS isn’t widespread enough to keep itunes afloat and isn’t widespread enough for the Zune team to even consider as a platform.

Windows PC’s own roughly 92% of the home computing market. From a business standpoint, that’s where the money is going to be made.

While I recognize that the Mac OS market share is rising, at this point in time it would seem as if the Zune team is choosing to stay on the PC side of things for a perfectly valid reason.

Close, but no cigar. It was always Apple’s strategy to go PC. However, they knew that the RIAA would not like the competition, so they pretended to be “Mac Only” in order to get the music mafia on board.

Source: “The Perfect Thing” by Steven Levy

And that is why that comment from Microsoft is just lame. LOL

Wow, Apple is forcing people to pick and choose?

How is that a problem? Microsoft would do better by rounding out their product line. Let customers who aren’t interested in some of the higher end features get in for a lesser price.

Isn’t that what they did with Vista? Make people pick and choose?