re images, etc.
Doesn't a mobile phone also send images, only to a much wider network?
I think the number of people who actually pay for phone-internet may not be so big you can bank on your recipient getting the pic on the phone and being able to forward it phone-to-phone. But maybe I'm wrong on this. Mostly I see phones used to send text, or for voice (duh). I personally don't pay for the internet feature and wouldn't want to experience the web, or attachments, or spam-paid-for-by-the-kilobit, on a pricey connection like that.
The thing the Zune does to make it easy to pester those in your class with unwanted images is that it can detect other nearby Zunes and let you select them as targets for transmission. Auto-discovery isn't something I've seen in phones. I think electronically harassing strangers on public transportation will become a favored prank of youths if the Zune takes off. It's like tapping them on the shoulder and disappearing, except you don't have to move. Whee!
Of course, I am partial, but I just don't think this thing is much of a threat, sure they'll sell millions of them, but I have faith Apple will stay a coupla steps ahead of them.
I'm not sure what the advantage really is in sending pics, unless to collect and forward humor items (or workplace harassment). I really don't see an advantage here for MSFT.
Any news on what the wireless tech is in these things or how MS overcame the battery life issue to drive a wireless solution?
I think their "solution" is letting you turn off the wireless features to save battery. Thus, the Zune creates a free-rider problem that will kill the community features of the Zune outside maybe special Zune parties where people agree to drop battery life to get song recommendations.
- Can you Zune someone a non-DRM song? (e.g., your GarageBand creation?) If not, that's a big minus for folks who have their pwn libraries and might be interested in a Zune, or in music that isn't in the Zune catalog.
- Since you can't Zune someone a song you've been Zuned, until you buy it yourself presumably, the "viral" stuff people have been discussing is bunk. More to the point, who will go around trying to Zune you tunes, other than paid promoters who use the Zune to scope out available Zunes with their networking on? How would users have any idea what kind of music a local target would enjoy? If I walked up to you and exposed you at random to my music, you might really not like it. I think most folks listen to music while occupied with other things and don't want folks intruding on them with song suggestions. I am guessing most folks, to save battery, won't set their Zunes to let strangers troll through their libraries a la Napster (the real one, not what we've got now under the bought name). Probably after enough people get them, and having creeps send a user a certain amount of unwanted garbage (say, offensive songs or really offensive images) anonymously, the wireless feature will get turned off pretty much for good, with the possible exception of specific song-suggesting occasions.
- The fact that Zune news includes nothing on battery life suggests strongly that there's no big news in the battery life. This is a player that died in the market but is being rebadged, with some player-edge controls removed for UI simplicity, as a "new" product from Microsoft.
I think the Zune will move a lot of units because of the marketing dropped into it, the profit allowed by vendors on the units (I suspect markup will exceed iPod markup, creating some seller pressure to prefer to sell Zunes than iPods), and promotions that put Zunes in the hands of users. I do not expect that the Zune's unusual features will be especially used or appreciated, but like most other players I figure most of the songs will come from existing collections. The differentiator for Zune will be strong marketing, in my opinion. There will be a group of people familiar with the market, and these will know the major purchase options and their relative merits, but outside these technorati the bulk of people will just know the names of the two most heavily marketed players, the Zune and the iPod.
The thing I'll be watching is (a) evidence of tying hardware sales to subscriptions, (b) success in subscription growth, and (c) ability to trade non-DRM music (which would be interesting and viral and would destroy the subscription market by making the limited tracks so much less useful).
Take care,
--Tex.
AI
