News Zune doesn't play for sure

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/09/19/Zune_doesnt_play_for_sure/

 

Microsoft need to stop 'starting fresh over' when they release new products and stick with initiatives for once. Sure, they're a big company and so creating complete coherence between different departments is difficult when you've got different teams being left to their own thing, but I think someone should have tapped the Zune guys on the shoulder and said 'by the way, we've kinda spent a lot of time and effort on this PFS thing so could you chuck that in too please?'. Still, won't put me off buying one as I don't have any music from download stores, but I don't see this as an incredibly good business move.

<A88>

 

Oh wow!

Just keep going guys, you're doing fine...

- H.

 

Read Endgadget's interview with J Allard, MS Corporate Vice President. If you thought politicians were good dancers, be impressed...

Yeah, right.

Sounds to me like Microsoft has suddenly decided at the top, that rather than owning a piece of the action and farming the rest of their digital media market out to third parties, they want to grab control of the whole lot, from music to distributing software right to the players it is played on.

So I suspect that they are going to abandon the Plays for Sure strategy in favour of a closed market like Apple did with the iPod. The irony is that with this, MS is going into direct competition with third parties that they once signed up to the Plays for Sure deal. Way to recruit business partners, and then stab them in the back as you suddenly decide that they are not only obsolete, but even unwelcome competitors. Gotta love business...

 

My god, i've never seen questions dodged in such a way before

 

well, sucks for the people who actually leave the DRM on their music

 

another reason not to buy from M$.

 

Actually, I think they really did just screw up and Allard is trying to make it sound like they did it on purpose. I would bet in a few weeks or months they'll come out with a firmware update or something enabling PFS.

 

They'll come out with firmware in a few weeks... that's putting the cart before the horse! I'm not even sure we're going to see this player on the market before the holiday season, is there a release date set?

 

It was MS that had this little program removing DRM from your MP3s being thrown off of the web after it had been reviewed on a tech-site, wasn't it? So why? They could've just bought the company.

 

haha, apple faux pas on itunes 7, microsoft must match it.

 

Stop starting over microsoft! WTF... use WMP 11 (its kickass) and make the device Play for sure. Add the Zune marketplace to WMP 11. Not make it its own program...

 

I wanna see rockbox on the Zune.

 

ok, may day started with a joke on the radio (So I'm standing in line at the grocery store and this pirate walks up behind me. I see that he's got a basket swinging from the hook where his hand used to be. The thing is, as the basket swings it's banging into the steering wheel in his pants. I can't help myself, I just have to ask: "Isn't that steering wheel in your pants kinda uncomfortable? To which the pirate answers, "Ahrrr matey, it's drivn' me nuts")

Now I'm about to go to bed and I read this about the "Zune" and quite frankly I find that even funnier. (Is there something wrong with me?)

 

Quoted for truth

Microsft (/Macro$loth) has done some great things and some like this. It's either an incredibly boneheaded move or a nasty move to ditch (/backstab) their "partners" and take on iTunes. Then again, maybe this will soon go the way of several of thier other adventures (joysticks, network hardware,...) Or maybe they're hoping Apple will stumble in this market just like Sony is stumbling with the PS3 (amoung other things). Or maybe I should just go to bed.

 

I totally agree with this. I think that Microsoft is making some pretty poor descisions with the Zune, but I guess they figured it would be pointless to go and create yet another PFS store and yet another PFS device, so they decided to go ahead and make an entire closed system all in the name of better branding and even more control.

 

That's the alternative theory. MS is a big shop, and one department may have just been working on a closed-system Apple competitor while completely forgetting that another department has been working on the Plays for Sure initiative. That is not entirely unlikely, given that the Zune Marketplace player is a totally different thing from WMP 11 a.k.a. Urge (which is integral to Vista). Where does Urge fit in the picture now we have Zune Marketplace?

However, you'd expect, as <A88> says, that someone would have sent them a memo, considering how easy it would be to just incorportate Plays for Sure into the Zune. But I think that they deliberately did not. I think that Allard was being truthful in saying:

MS has simply done some thinking about where digital music/video is going, and has decided that Plays for Sure isn't it. Why? Because it is not a comprehensive system/strategy. There is no distinct, coherent brand identity, no seamless integration and MS does not control most of it. it's just a bunch of bits and pieces with the vague promise that it will work together somehow.

Whereas the Apple iPod has a very strong brand identity and an integrated, seamless service/experience from end to end, no technical know-how required. It's a toaster: plug and play. As such, it stands out in the marketplace as an easily identifiable, distinct, complete, quality product, not a bunch of bits and pieces from different manufacturers, of variable quality, that creates the image of requiring a geek to make them play nice together.

Plays for Sure was MS' haphazard attempt to maintain a foothold in a market in the absence of (or while awaiting) their own distinct product (not a new strategy: think Windows Millenium). Now they have one, Plays for Sure is obsolete. They just don't want to piss off their business partners by admitting that they got them to sign up to, and invest in something that never had a future, hence the whole "hey, it's really a complementary strategy" BS. But their partners know like MS knows and we know that they got "zunked" (again not a new move: think Smart Display). Within one year, no-one will ever breathe a word about Plays for Sure again.

Except that MS will have one embarrassment left to deal with, and it's a big one, branded like a scarlet "A" on the next generation of its OS: Vista's "Urge"...

 

И что ? Sorry... I have PSP > Zune i dont buy!!!

 

I'm not wildly interested in DRM content. I still buy CDs and rip then when I want something, but then my player just shows up as a hard drive in windows so life is somewhat simpler.

 

I dont buy Zune , because i buy PSP . I play game , watch video , read book in PSP .