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Microsoft Confirms Multi-Touch Zune HD to Compete Against iPod Touch
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Looks pretty nice. If it ever makes it to UK shores I'd like to try it out because by doing so that would demonstrate that I'm not the sort of clueless knuckledragger that condemns a product without trying it and am instead someone who makes informed decisions regardless of the brand concerned.
Honestly, some of the posters here could do with a nice cup of **** as well as updating their prejudices. MS never innovating indeed? What drivel.
Honestly, some of the posters here could do with a nice cup of **** as well as updating their prejudices. MS never innovating indeed? What drivel.
90% of the comments in this thread follow one of these formats:
"Omg, it's so ugly!"
"Way to copy Apple, Microsoft!"
"It's gonna suck!"
"Nice try!"
"I hate it because it's got no Apple logo on it!"
"They copied the first-gen iPhone omg!"
Uuggggghhhh. Ffffffff*ck.
I have a love/hate relationship with these sorts of new stories on MacRumors. I like hearing about them, but I absolutely hate reading the comments, and I can never help myself but try to comment the other way around.
Microsoft-bashing Apple fanboys with bad grammar galore. Nobody knows how to take things with a grain of salt anymore!
"Omg, it's so ugly!"
"Way to copy Apple, Microsoft!"
"It's gonna suck!"
"Nice try!"
"I hate it because it's got no Apple logo on it!"
"They copied the first-gen iPhone omg!"
Uuggggghhhh. Ffffffff*ck.
I have a love/hate relationship with these sorts of new stories on MacRumors. I like hearing about them, but I absolutely hate reading the comments, and I can never help myself but try to comment the other way around. Microsoft-bashing Apple fanboys with bad grammar galore. Nobody knows how to take things with a grain of salt anymore!
Bit late!!
Some companies never learn, do they?!!! I cant understand who they pay to come out with things like that! 1st specs do not matter as that was proven with many technologies such the console wars. Microsoft does not understand that people buy the ipod touch not because of its specs but because of the way it integrates with iTunes. Sony failed at the MP3 player wars not because they cant make great MP3 players, on the contrary they make some of the best, it is this because they did not have the right software to go with it!! So until Microsoft comes out with something that competes with iTunes and fits with its music player, its point set match to Apple!
Some companies never learn, do they?!!! I cant understand who they pay to come out with things like that! 1st specs do not matter as that was proven with many technologies such the console wars. Microsoft does not understand that people buy the ipod touch not because of its specs but because of the way it integrates with iTunes. Sony failed at the MP3 player wars not because they cant make great MP3 players, on the contrary they make some of the best, it is this because they did not have the right software to go with it!! So until Microsoft comes out with something that competes with iTunes and fits with its music player, its point set match to Apple!
fair enough, but let's not forget Apple did not make the first MP3 player, the iPod isn't totally original itself.
Somewhat ironic, no?
90% of the comments in this thread follow one of these formats:
"Omg, it's so ugly!"
"Way to copy Apple, Microsoft!"
"It's gonna suck!"
"Nice try!"
"I hate it because it's got no Apple logo on it!"
"They copied the first-gen iPhone omg!"
Uuggggghhhh. Ffffffff*ck.
Microsoft-bashing Apple fanboys with bad grammar galore. Nobody knows how to take things with a grain of salt anymore!
Amen, brother.
Like Apple inventing the MP3 player? Oh wait... I know, inventing an MP3 player with a color screen that plays movies. No? Ok, multi touch... No? Hmm....
It gets old dude, and these comments bitching about some competition to apple get old. iTunes is the most ridiculous piece of crap I have on my mac and PC. I say keep the fire under apple's feet, its good for us in the end.
-d
What kind of magical (crippled) home theater system do you have that only accepts audio from iPods and not any device?
Of course, we all know that those DRM-free movies and shows Apple sells are better.
You know, this is probably one if the best threads in a kong time. This is nit a commercial and I've never seen so much anti fact gathering bashing only to be retorted with facts. If this device say became a football MLB radio player it would sell millions. Add to this that xbox titles and more, will surely come along with, Netflix and possible DVR capabilities, I think it does, this could spell a huge success for msft regardless of what happens to apples market share. The best part, for me, is that for a long time I have hailed the iPhone as never living up to it's expectations due to iTunes, apple tv and the lack of flash. To have a company, any company, deliver a product that dies this with non crippled ware slingbox, netflix, is a major coup for microsoft. If successful, it could kill Apple TV hardware and force the hand of Apple to release Apple TV as software, (they can, it's just a slow computer), while offering terrefic gaming. Who knows maybe the iPhone will finally mature now as Appke releases it's grip on trying to get cash fir what should be free content anyway, note, television shows.
I am actually impressed if msft timed this with new iphone's, wwdc, contracts expiring, palm pre.
Much of this will also depend on 3rd party developers, app store, and the thousands of developers who were turned away from apple fir developing pod cast, teethering, recording(video), web dev., and music library software. Many of these developers who went to googles android will see msft as a huge cash cow. This could end up being very big. If microsoft plays their cards right, I see no reason why they can't come up with a better media music player and one that uses technology from companies like MusicIP that are much better than the genius bar for iTunes. I was the director of artist relations there. Youngiuld, fir example, play green day then use the engine which wouldntean/analize the usic and give you tracks, even from Indies bands, that sounded almost identical. Creating playlists that were stellar.
So much possibilities ahead. All dependent on the OS.
The past gives a glimpse of the future. Truly this looks like repeat "not ready for prime-time" effort on the Zune division's part. Just look at the mistakes in the PR picture. The PR picture! Then look at the design. It would have been cool looking if it were still 2004; the edge back is anti- ergonomic and the screws showing is a design faux pas for an "upscale" device. Then you get to the guts & see the screen resolution doesn't improve on the current iPod Touch...and we've yet to see what the next Touch will deliver, which will be what the Zune HD is really competing against.
Now maybe there is some goodness inside, obviously no one can say since no one outside of M$ has tested it. But from what we know I'd say I'm not expecting too much, and not just because it's M$, but because M$ just isn't putting its heart into the Zune project. It is, and always has been, a "me too" device. It may have more features than the iPods, but it lacks in design, interface, and connectivity polish.
Plenty of people will buy Zune HDs, but for the wrong reason. They won't buy it because it is the best media player on the market but rather because it's not Apple. The ironic thing is that both M$ and Apple are multi-billion dollar Goliaths in their own right, who, if they could, would corner the market and squeeze the consumer any way possible if they had the opportunity. Actually M$ did and nearly got away with it.
Obviously it's fugliness or the fact that it's two years late, is something I should hold judgement about cause that's whAt I said... But yeah whatever mate....
one of the most spazzy comments i've ever seen on the internet
i have owned 2 apple computers, 2 ipods and an iphone but this site makes me hate apple because of its "fans". You almost want to root for microsoft as an underdog ffs
Why has a a story about yet another iPod copy (this time in HD) received over 400 comments? LOL
I give you MDN's recent illuminating take on the matter. It seems appropriate.
According to CNET, Zune HD "is based on Windows CE and will use a version of Internet Explorer customized for its touch screen." Quick, somebody dial 911, we just heard a train wreck!
Now, Zune HD is not the first portable media player that combines anything, since it is vapor. You do not get to claim "first" with a press release and a photo of something that looks so 1990s Sony, that Sony ought to sue. If it actually does ship "in the U.S. this fall," it'll be the first player to combine a specific bunch of elements into an overly-bevelled package under a severely damaged brand name which will continue failing to sell in meaningful numbers. In any other company's hands on this (or any other) planet, Zune would have been discontinued long ago, if it'd ever been given the go ahead for development and launch in the first place.
Do not discount the possibility that this is yet another attempt, however weak it may be, by Microsoft to "freeze the market" ahead of Apple's expected announcements regarding iPhone, iPod touch, and as-yet-unannounced products. Regardless, Microsoft is morbidly delusional either way.
"Any product that is essentially a copy of something else... there's something inherently less interesting about them. Because the companies that make them don't lead, they follow." - Paul Thurrott, March 19, 2009
I give you MDN's recent illuminating take on the matter. It seems appropriate.
According to CNET, Zune HD "is based on Windows CE and will use a version of Internet Explorer customized for its touch screen." Quick, somebody dial 911, we just heard a train wreck!
Now, Zune HD is not the first portable media player that combines anything, since it is vapor. You do not get to claim "first" with a press release and a photo of something that looks so 1990s Sony, that Sony ought to sue. If it actually does ship "in the U.S. this fall," it'll be the first player to combine a specific bunch of elements into an overly-bevelled package under a severely damaged brand name which will continue failing to sell in meaningful numbers. In any other company's hands on this (or any other) planet, Zune would have been discontinued long ago, if it'd ever been given the go ahead for development and launch in the first place.
Do not discount the possibility that this is yet another attempt, however weak it may be, by Microsoft to "freeze the market" ahead of Apple's expected announcements regarding iPhone, iPod touch, and as-yet-unannounced products. Regardless, Microsoft is morbidly delusional either way.
"Any product that is essentially a copy of something else... there's something inherently less interesting about them. Because the companies that make them don't lead, they follow." - Paul Thurrott, March 19, 2009
MS designers truly suck, right behind DELL's stable of hacks. The front is just OK, but the back is very pedestrian. At least MS employees will have something new they can bring on the corporate campus.
Just curoius, how is it "obvious"? I mean, just how differently could you design an large-screen mediaplayer with a touchscreen? They ALL share some design-features between them.
If MS created a device that had nothing but screen, you could still claim that "it's a copy of iPod touch!". ALL devices of this type look similar in some way.
I think that was part of the design though, it's a modern industrial look. I think the back of the device looks better than the front, however.
As Judge Alsop in the Psystar vs Apple case decided, Apple doesn't have a monopoly on MacOS X, because MacOS X doesn't define a market in which a company could have a monopoly. The relevant market would be operating systems, and Apple has less than 10 percent market share in that market. A company doesn't have a monopoly in its own products, and there is legal precedent after precedent for that.
My friend, I understand the principles of monopolies very well. What you do not seem to understand on the other hand is how competition between these gadgets can drive innovation. I understand that the driving factor for all these companies is money and that MS has a comfortable position because they are diversified (have a broad product portfolio) and can stand a setback or two (or three or four). BUT inevitably the source of all that money in that bank of theirs is the customer. And billions or not, that supply is limited. And you can only lure the customer in and keep them (and thus keep the cashflow going) by providing first rate products that are better than others.
And that's where competition comes in, NOT MONEY. Especially with gadgets people are not loyal to the producer (this does not go for fanboys by the way), so the minute people realize that the Zune HD is better than the Ipod Touch, it will be lapped up by people that are not so loyal to Apple as I am for example. Apple can stand to afford a number of customers, but up to a certain point. So if the Zune HD turns out to be better, Apple needs to step up their game and improve the Touch and iPhone. You can bet your bottom that in Redmond there are large numbers of Ipod Touches lying around for study objects. In addition you can be sure that Apple will buy a number of Zune HD's as soon as it's released..
Can you now please explain to us what you mean with a MS monopoly? And yes, I read that you experienced the 70s (as I did), so I don't need to hear about Windows 1. Where does MS NOW have a monopoly that represents a significant part of the MS product strategy?
By not doing that, but something new, you know...innovate?
Apple pioneered that design and a company as large as MS could afford to make a fresh product and not just a cold pasta product.
I gotta agree with many here that say MS is not innovating...that the iTouch has been out for a few years...and iTouch's marketshare is strong...and that this device, likely, will not make a dent in the iTouch market.
However, let's not be so quick to judge...Apple entered the cell phone market about 15 years after others did and are doing well.
A year ago I was ready to buy an iTouch but held off just because the timing wasn't quite right and mostly because the storage size did not fit my needs. Then in December I bought a Netbook and love it and does pretty much everything the iTouch would have done FOR MY NEEDS (also someone who has never bought a single thing off iTunes and never will...and I'm not into games enough to plop $300 or $400). And my netbook was cheaper. Nothing against Apple, the iTouch was off my list as soon as I saw the Netbooks' features/prices.
I would say that right now I am a bit lost in what the iTouch is trying to offer...the lines have really blurred (and are continuing) between and iTouch and an iPhone...and even the iPod. I have a great iPod (would love a nice large 100+gig flash based one however), have a sweet netbook, and cannot get an iPhone because it's locked to AT&T. Taking me out of the picture...and assuming the average shopper already has an iPod and likely already knows what the iPhone does and what cheap laptops do...what is the magic message to these shoppers? Yes, the shoppers that haven't bought an electronic device since Mama's Family went off the air will understand all the iTouch features.
Apple has the Marketing engine as well as the designers who make sexy products. MS clearly has never released a product that is as sexy as an Apple. My gut is this new product will fail...mainly because of Apple's great marketing, "coolness factor", and quite honestly the sexiness factor.
-Eric
However, let's not be so quick to judge...Apple entered the cell phone market about 15 years after others did and are doing well.
A year ago I was ready to buy an iTouch but held off just because the timing wasn't quite right and mostly because the storage size did not fit my needs. Then in December I bought a Netbook and love it and does pretty much everything the iTouch would have done FOR MY NEEDS (also someone who has never bought a single thing off iTunes and never will...and I'm not into games enough to plop $300 or $400). And my netbook was cheaper. Nothing against Apple, the iTouch was off my list as soon as I saw the Netbooks' features/prices.
I would say that right now I am a bit lost in what the iTouch is trying to offer...the lines have really blurred (and are continuing) between and iTouch and an iPhone...and even the iPod. I have a great iPod (would love a nice large 100+gig flash based one however), have a sweet netbook, and cannot get an iPhone because it's locked to AT&T. Taking me out of the picture...and assuming the average shopper already has an iPod and likely already knows what the iPhone does and what cheap laptops do...what is the magic message to these shoppers? Yes, the shoppers that haven't bought an electronic device since Mama's Family went off the air will understand all the iTouch features.
Apple has the Marketing engine as well as the designers who make sexy products. MS clearly has never released a product that is as sexy as an Apple. My gut is this new product will fail...mainly because of Apple's great marketing, "coolness factor", and quite honestly the sexiness factor.
-Eric