Microsoft Reportedly Ends Zune Hardware Development 276
ideaz tips this Bloomberg report:
"Microsoft Corp. will cease introducing new versions of the Zune music and video-player amid tepid demand, helping the company shift its focus to mobile phones, according to a person familiar with the decision. The company will concentrate on putting Zune software onto mobile phones such as those running Microsoft’s Windows operating system, said the person, who declined to be identified because the decision hasn’t been announced. Zune software lets customers buy songs and movies, as well as pay a monthly fee to stream unlimited music."
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:2, Insightful)
Demands (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft Corp. will cease introducing new versions of the Zune music and video-player amid tepid demand, helping the company shift its focus to mobile phones
Presumably in the hopes that they can eventually rise all the way up to a tepid level of demand for their phone products too.
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:3, Insightful)
Zune wasn't actually a bad product and had some nice features that the ipad still hasn't got right. They were just a little late to the game.
Re:What a joke. (Score:0, Insightful)
Parent post is a joke. At least I hope so.
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, you suck at reading comprehension. Where exactly did he say he wanted a world dominated by Microsoft?
And you suck at recent history. Domination is what Microsoft does best. Of course they will play that down now that Apple and Google prove resistant to their usual tactics. But make no mistake, Microsoft holds their cards close to their chest.
When Windows gets down to less than 50% of the desktop OS market, uses open standards wherever possible, is as compatible with other systems as possible including file formsts for things like MS Office, then we can talk as though you made a useful point.
Re:What a joke. (Score:2, Insightful)
"They should shutter their business and release all their developers to go work on real projects that have a hope of succeeding."
While their developers are probably first rate, they have been trained by the M$ management to produce sub-stellar products. If M$ goes away, all of those managers would infect other companies. Can the world really afford that?
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:3, Insightful)
World dominated by Apple: the hardware costs a bit more for the computers, equal or cheaper for the devices, software is usually much cheaper than competitors but you can't do everything you want. Some features are limited or non-existant, but otherwise things run pretty smoothly, usability is first and 99.9999% of users don't need to rely on a "computer friend" to help them out.
World dominated by Google: things are usually free but spammed with advertising, you have no anonymity online and you don't control your personnal information and data, their goal is to let you access your data everywhere but in turn they must be able to access it too for advertising purposes. "Don't Be Evil" has been replaced with "Don't Screw Them Too Hard".
World dominated by Microsoft*: they are extremely prone to the "not invented here" syndrome, their software is not only really expensive but also not quite stable, their only redeeming quality is that they try to achieve backward compatibility to the point that most of the software bloat is to support users from a decade ago. Features are put ahead of security, usability is an after-thought at best, sacrificed for an overload of features that most people wouldn't even know how to use in the first place.
* we have proof since that's how it's been since the late 1980's.
They all have bad sides and good sides...
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:1, Insightful)
Awwww, you love to hate Microsoft so much that you have to live in the past now? How sad.
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:5, Insightful)
Awwww, you love to hate Microsoft so much that you have to live in the past now? How sad.
Yes, of course hatred is the one and only reason to be honest about who you're dealing with. Such pure hatred couldn't possibly be tainted with lesser concerns like honesty, realism, or a comprehension of the fact that history tends to repeat itself. Nope. Those logical things would interfere with momentary emotions. I am glad you use dismissal and ridicule as your primary means of making your point, since that's clearly superior to the hatred of which you accuse me.
I hate to ruin your pity party and everything but the same personalities who perpetrated Microsoft's repeated past abuses are still running the company. Especially Ballmer. It's simply foolish to act like the last 10 years of abusive behavior didn't happen. In fact, that's precisely what enables more of the same, what makes it successful. Most of their strategic methods depend on people who never see it coming, like embrace-and-extend for example. I see you can be counted among those who facilitate this, no doubt out of some misguided belief that they have suddenly seen the light.
If there had been a significant change in management then I'd agree with you about living in the past. I'd say that the new managers deserve a fair chance to show us whether they're just like the old ones. But there are no new managers, not at the top.
What you're doing there, it's called denial. The only hatred happening here is yours for anyone who makes denial less comfortable for you. Here's the deal and it's real simple: it never occurred to me to think of Microsoft's leadership as ruthless bastards until they started repeatedly acting like ruthless bastards. That was their choice. If they really have turned over a new leaf then they should recognize that trust is an especially difficult thing to restore once it is destroyed. If you don't like these basic facts, that's tough shit for you. Being a dick won't change them, nor will it persuade anyone to see things your way. Not that persuasion seems to be your goal.
Re:What a joke. (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple were not the first into either of those markets, so I don't know why you'd say "follow Apple".
You are following whoever is in front of you, regardless of whether that person is at the front of the line. Apple went, then Microsoft went. So Microsoft followed Apple.
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:3, Insightful)
How interesting that two extremely similar ID's both gush over Microsoft. Billy the Boy (2016540) and balls of steel (2016538).
Gee what an amazing coincidence that those numbers are so similar. It's as if they we