Just read this post at iTWire called Why consumers are angry with Microsoft over Zune where he describes his experience with the Zune MP3 player from Microsoft, the Zune marketplace software installation he had trouble with because he was using Firefox and goes on to describe why he thinks consumers are angry with Microsoft over the Zune. I say he thinks because he just references himself, so I don’t think he is talking for a group of people.
The first time I tried to download the Zune software, it wouldn’t let me even though my system met the Zune software standards – Win XP SP2, a processor that runs at least at 1.5GHz, memory of at least….hang on what is this nonsense anyway!? I got none of this minimum hardware requirements rubbish when I installed iTunes 7, which installed without hitch in exactly five minutes.
Of course he is comparing 1st generation to 7th generation software, if you go by the version alone, I didn’t do any searching to confirm it, but I remember problem reports with iTunes when it first came out. But you would think Microsoft would try to convert everything they find using the PlaysForSure DRM that windows media player uses, its common courtesy. So, this is not a good comparison, even though Microsoft should’ve had it more polished to start with, being that this has already been done well somewhere else.
The point of all this is that Microsoft seems to have taken the one major thing that consumers don’t like about iPod and iTunes – the DRM restricted closed system – and ignored all the good things. Instead of presenting Joe and Jane consumer with a viable alternative to iPod, Microsoft Zune has given consumers a poorer imitation of the same. That’s why consumers are angry and Zune players, despite massive publicity are still sitting on store shelves.
This is definitely closer to the truth. But I wouldn’t pay for a first generation anything, if I wasn’t getting a Zune from somewhere for free, I would not end up with one for probably a couple years anyway. Heck, I think I bought my first iPod a little over a year ago, so, I really haven’t been any early adopter of much, although that is changing.