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iPod Zune Pricing and Shipping Announced.

Not only is that ugly as sin, but I can't think of anything that I'd be less interested in than battery-munching wifi and useless FM radio. It'll take some greater innovation than that to dethrone the device that revolutionized the entire market. :rolleyes:

Of course, that's the problem with Microsoft... even if they bomb when breaking into a new market and take a huge profit loss, they've got so much cash to spare that they can hang in there long enough to achieve a foothold. Xbox, anyone...?


~Kalmia
 
anubis said:
Note that on the wifi, any songs you transfer to your player from someone's player will be slapped with some manner of DRM. If my memory serves me correctly, I think I read somewhere that this DRM will automatically disable/delete the transferred song after 3 days or something like that. Useless.

Leave it to microsoft to tout a brown MP3 player as an "ipod killer" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Originally it was reported that the Zune would put DRM on non-DRM'd songs. It turns out this is not the case.

But any transferred DRM song will be as you said, good for 3 days or 3 plays (which ever comes first).
 
It looks nice and clean. I guess it will have a good interface for users. All of these things Apple did already and we all know it.

Oh, wireless sounds nice too on a MS product.
Sharing my content with others around me, COOL....
Until...
"what the F*$#, why is my new MS Zune not working. I guess I need to do a virus check, contact MS, downlaod new security updates and try again. Still not working..arrrrrrg."

I see a Funny iPod commercial for that.
 
Macanadian said:
14.99 for unlimited downloads!

I can just picture some teen's staying as long as possible for a month to get thousands of songs downloaded.
Click to expand...

except they won't work once you don't pay the next month. :rolleyes:
 
Macanadian said:
14.99 for unlimited downloads!

I can just picture some teen's staying as long as possible for a month to get thousands of songs downloaded.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that if that teen wants to be able to listen to his huge music collection in the future, he will have to cough up the fee again and again and again. suppose he is 14, at 44, he will have paid $ 5396.4. I think most teens will stick with whatever it is they use to get music illegally (To be honest, I use the local library + iTunes, so semi-not very legal)

I would prefer to pay a monthly fee for WoW than iZunes, but I am saving up for the World youth days in Sydney, so I will take neither

EDIT: Placeofdis beat me by 2 minutes
 
Macnoviz said:
Yeah, on Endgadget they have the pricing story+pictures

Official pictures of the Zune have been around for some time now
Click to expand...

hmmm interesting, they even copied the mop floor effect that Apple uses on displaying their products. :rolleyes:
 
Personally, I wouldn't mind an FM tuner, wireless & bigger screen. W/ the wireless, I'd also like the option of turning it on & off. For the bigger screen, I don't want to be staring at a 2.5" screen for a multi-hour flight or whatever. 3" isn't that much of an improvement, but it's something.
 
fabsgwu said:
And who the f- wants to rent music? No thanks, for me.
Click to expand...

well, you can rent or buy. sounds like they offer both models.

arn
 
Microsoft Points

The thing that caught my eye about the Zune pricing scheme is this whole "Microsoft Points" concept:

For consumers looking to own a song, the Zune Marketplace will sell tracks for 79 Microsoft points. A user can buy 80 Microsoft points for $1 and points will also be redeemable at its online video game store, Xbox Live Marketplace.
Click to expand...

So the inevitable is happening: Microsoft is trying to "embrace and extend" hard currency. If you can only buy Microsoft points in dollar increments, they are going to be sitting on a lot of people's unspent points, which will artificially line their coffers. How typical is that of the way they operate? :mad:
 
Bobdude161 said:
hmmm interesting, they even copied the mop floor effect that Apple uses on displaying their products. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

And to quote our Canadian Friend:

they even copied the mop floor effect, buuut, zey didn't get zat quite right"
Click to expand...

Just look at the distorterd click-but-no-wheel-wheels

The quote in my sig is actually about the 1st gen iPod, but I think it is quite appropriate to describe the Zune

(various edits during the last minutes)
 
arn said:
well, you can rent or buy. sounds like they offer both models.

arn
Click to expand...

Yeah, got that. But if you're a mac user and you don't like to rent music, then the Zune/Zune Marketplace really shouldn't be on your radar (iPod/iTunes should serve just fine).

Apple should definitely work on movie rentals, tho...
 
STLSigns said:
It looks nice and clean. I guess it will have a good interface for users. All of these things Apple did already and we all know it.

Oh, wireless sounds nice too on a MS product.
Sharing my content with others around me, COOL....
Until...
"what the F*$#, why is my new MS Zune not working. I guess I need to do a virus check, contact MS, downlaod new security updates and try again. Still not working..arrrrrrg."
Click to expand...

Yeah i can see it now, the screen reads "Unit has detected a volume change. Please restart to apply change."
 
It's not all hardware

The hardware is all fine-and-good with competitive price and nice additional features, but there's one side we haven't seen yet and that's the software that it integrates with.

That will be the make-it-or-break-it item for me.

If it's an iTunes wanna-be then no dice!

But if it doesn't have a blue icon, then the Zune's for me!
 
guzhogi said:
For the bigger screen, I don't want to be staring at a 2.5" screen for a multi-hour flight or whatever. 3" isn't that much of an improvement, but it's something.
Click to expand...

Still a 4:3 aspect ratio, so it's not even wide screen. Hopefully Steve'll bring us that on the true Video iPod...
 
Silencio said:
The thing that caught my eye about the Zune pricing scheme is this whole "Microsoft Points" concept:

So the inevitable is happening: Microsoft is trying to "embrace and extend" hard currency. If you can only buy Microsoft points in dollar increments, they are going to be sitting on a lot of people's unspent points, which will artificially line their coffers. How typical is that of the way they operate? :mad:
Click to expand...

also, with those points, it makes it seem cheaper. 79 points for a song instead of $.99, when average joe isn't supposed to notice that 79 points costs $.99, thus it's the same friggen thing. :rolleyes:

just another cheap marketing ploy...
 
heffemonkeyman said:
"For consumers looking to own a song, the Zune Marketplace will sell tracks for 79 Microsoft points. A user can buy 80 Microsoft points for $1
Click to expand...
I've seen that on CNN and could not believe my eyes. They are trying to fool people into believing that each song is about 79 cents, although it is the same price as iTS, 99c. They had to make it complicated with points and stuff instead of real dollars. I guess that's Microsoft's MO. Now, each song is $1*(79/80) if you can work out the math.

In any case, once again, brown???
 
wifi is a gimic

wifi on the zune player is a gimmick and in marketing language, a gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature.
 
one other point...

this will NOT work on Macs. so there is some limit there, not surprising.
oh, and remember that this is not a Microsoft piece of hardware. this is made by and designed by Toshiba.
 
What makes me laugh...

While Apple makes a ton of money selling all kinds of iPods, Microsoft will apparently be making a loss on each "Zune" they are selling...

Well, I don't think they will sell too many, so their losses will stay within reasonable limits.
 
Just because I know it will please the wolves.;)

From Thruott's review of the "new" iPods - "I can't imagine why Microsoft is even attempting to enter this market." Apparently everybody is baffled by this thing...
 
Not profitable this year, but hopes to be in future years.

So, their plan is to try and kill off the iPod, and once they're the last man standing they can raise their prices?

This is a good thing? :confused:
 
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