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."
And in other news (Score:5, Funny)
And in other news, Poison Beer Incorporated has announced the end of the production of their Cyanide Cider line of toxic methyl alcohol coolers. A company insider, speaking on condition of anonymity has revealed due to the tepid reception of the drink that causes blindness, neurological damage and in many cases death, has lead to the decision. Poison Beer Incorporated will now be concentrating on Thalidomide Cola, where it sees the future of its toxic drink product sales.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Is that like complaining about how the USSR was treated in the press, after all they were the second best superpower!!!!
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Poison Beer Incorporated will now be concentrating on Thalidomide Cola, where it sees the future of its toxic drink product sales.
Not to take a joke seriously, but Thalidomide isn't very "toxic." That was one of it's selling points in fact. It is a potent teratogen, but those of us who are fully formed, it appears safer than most medicines.
It had been tested extensively on mice and found to be nontoxic. It was so harmless, in fact, that no lethal dose could be established.
Wired [wired.com]
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
BTW, thalidomide is successfully used for other treatments nowadays.
No, the joke isn't whooshing over me.
Re:And in other news (Score:5, Funny)
Go ahead and mod me down, I'll just post something like "and nothing of value was lost" for the instant +5.
And nothing of value was lost.
Re: (Score:3)
A mod of -1 shill or astroturf would probably be more accurate.
It's quite obvious that Microsoft has been practicing their astroturfing, in particular on WP stories, and it's actually improving away from utterly blatant marketingspeak. But it's still fairly obvious. Unfortunately for Microsoft, such behaviour means that nobody will actually believe genuine reviews should any such ever be positive.
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:Demands (Score:5, Funny)
Tepid? We used to dream of tepid. Our dad used to come home and drown us in liquid nitrogen, then smash us to bits like an empty bottle after we'd gone all brittle. But we were happy....
Re:Demands (Score:5, Funny)
Tepid? We used to dream of tepid. Our dad used to come home and drown us in liquid nitrogen, then smash us to bits like an empty bottle after we'd gone all brittle. But we were happy....
Luxury! Oh, have less than tepid! When our CEO came back from a public flogging at a trade show, flogged by the sweepers, 'cuz they were the only ones to be found around in and around our gigantic booth, our CEO would force us into team building exercises while boiling in vats of molten lead. How we fantasized about a less than tepid reception. We didn't complain though...
Their key strategic mistake (Score:3)
They made a key strategic error with the Zune - they didn't realize that no one wanted a "poop brown" media device. Ooops.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Um, shouldn't you be paying attention to the controls or something when you're flying?
Imagine the sales conversation (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey, I'm looking to buy a music player, like an iPod or something."
"Oh, okay, well what features you you want?"
"Well, I don't really care about having good software, an intuitive interface, or mind if my device will stop working on random days. I just want something that's poop brown."
"Great! Well we have just the product for you..."
Re: (Score:2)
No doubt targeted at the prison population.
"Have to keister your MP3 player? No problem!"
Re:Their key strategic mistake (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Making that software super slow and super buggy was also quite bad.
Well, let's be honest, they were competing with iTunes on Windows...
But poor codec support hasn't hurt Apple. AAC/MP3 should be enough for everyone(Unless the Zune didn't support AAC for whatever reason).
What really hurt the Zune was that as an mp3 player, it was outclassed by the iPod and as a touch screen flash based media device(Zune HD), it was outclassed by the iPod Touch. Even if the specs were better(Tegra 1 versus an overclocked iPhone 3G), the iPod Touch has a rich base of applications. The Zune
Re: (Score:2)
I never used a Zune, but you mean to tell me that Microsoft made an MP3 player that couldn't sync with Windows Media Player? If true, that's amazingly awful.
Re: (Score:3)
MS going up against the iPod decided to compete against Apple by being obscure. See in the minds of MS, they thought this was "cool" [youtube.com] not to let people know that exactly you're trying to sell them. So their strategy to getting marketshare from the market leader involved trying to give the impression that they wanted sell to the fewest people as possible.
Instea
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
When it takes me 30 minutes to figure out how to put a song on the device after consulting an operating manual and several forums then something is wrong
Maybe it's changed since my iPod died (some years ago now), and the iTunes UI has got worse with every release since 4.2, but I seem to remember the procedure for putting songs on the device was:
If this is too hard, maybe you shouldn't be using computers. Or anything with sharp edges, come to think of it.
Worse than that (Score:2)
Even more unsavory, it's a poop brown device that "squirts". It would probably have sold better if they had bundled each device with with a packet of wet wipes and a bottle of Purell.
Re: (Score:2)
They made a key strategic error with the Zune - they didn't realize that no one wanted a "poop brown" media device. Ooops.
Well, what happened was they had to make some last-minute cutbacks to the project and so they weren't able to print on the "wood grain" pattern that would have given it the desired late-1970s charm.
Re: (Score:2)
I heard they had to delete the tuning eye [wikipedia.org] as well.
Don't know what one is? Get off of my lawn!
Re: (Score:2)
It wasn't just the poop brown. It was also being a half inch thick untapered sharp edged box with almost no peripheral support. There are better industrial designers in the UPS shipping supplies division.
What is with the obsession? (Score:4, Interesting)
Copy success (Score:2)
Unless you fail that is... Twice potentially...
So Nokia phones will now be the new Zune platform (Score:2)
It all begins to make sense now. Nokia does windows phones and they get their multimedia content from the Zune store.
Ahhhh.
I like Zune better than iTunes (Score:5, Interesting)
Zunes are durable too, at least 1st Gen. My ugly brown Zune is still going strong, and it was $100 at a time when a 30 gig iPod was $400
Re: (Score:3)
That's like saying "I like having my eyeballs gouged out with toothpicks better than having my balls gnawed off my wildebeests"
Both iTunes and Zune are HORRIBLE pieces of software.
A Better Analogy (Re:I like Zune better than ...) (Score:2)
A better analogy would be like saying "iTunes is like a toothpick to the right eye while Zune is like a toothpick to the left eye. Since I favor my right eye more, I think Zune is great!"
Nokia ZunePhone? (Score:2)
The company will concentrate on putting Zune software onto mobile phones such as those running Microsoft’s Windows operating system
So something makes me think that this will be bundled with Nokia's future Windows Phone 7 devices. They will try to be like Apple with iPhone/iTunes.
Good luck with that.
Re: (Score:2)
The Zune experience is already in every WP7 phone sold. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here.
The what now? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Zune, Zune, Zune.... errrrmmm... oh, that thing!
Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes I have trouble remembering all this Microsoft crap, and then suddenly - bing! - it comes to me.
I have seen this before... (Score:2)
It's all in the name. (Score:2)
Cue Steve Jobs yelling... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"...I Am Sparta!" at the top of his lungs.
More like "iSparticus!"
Re: (Score:2)
Or "THIS IS APPLE!"
before kicking Steve Balmer into a pit full of chairs.
Really? (Score:2, Funny)
.
No iPod Touch competition? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It would be interesting to see the sales figures for iPod Touch, especially after iPhone rise to dominance. I suspect that it is a dying market - why have two devices of the same form factor when you can have one? Which would explain this decision, too - keep in mind that every WP7 phone ships with a music player, which, as I understand, is pretty close to what can be seen on Zune HD. The music store remains (and is integrated with phones) as well.
Re: (Score:2)
The iPod Touch still sells well since it does all of the App Store stuff that the iPhone does, but is *considerably* cheaper, if you don't want a phone.
Re: (Score:2)
Remember that the iPod touch was introduced *after* the iPhone, because there was enough demand from those who didn't want a smartphone (or didn't want to pay the additional $30+/month for a data plan).
If anything, the iPod classic is suffering more from the iPhone/iPod introduction. The only thing the classic has going for it is the huge capacity for a digital player: 160 GB. Everything else--battery life, screensize (for video), apps, weight, etc is beaten by the iPod touch.
Yet another Quality Microsoft Colossal Failure (Score:2)
Hey, I have an idea, why don't they focus on their core products and stop messing around with things they're no good at - everything where they don't hold a near monopoly.
Windows Phone Next (Score:2)
If theyr're smart Windows Phone 7 will be next. Plus they are foolishly trying to bring laptop style Windows to tablets while Apple is selling millions using iOS.
Kiler feature: (Score:2)
"Squirt".
Just what kind of demographic did they think they were targeting with such choice of vocabulary?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would presume bukkake fans would be more interested in a video device, than an audio device if that was the case.
Re: (Score:2)
Slightly taller and balder George Costanza impersonators?
Re: (Score:2)
"...as well as pay a monthly fee..." (Score:2)
"Play For Sure" Anyone? (Score:2)
The end of Zune is not problem here - glad I stuck with my "Play For Sure" music player ... oh wait.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/2004074417_playsforsure15.html [nwsource.com]
So much for "iPod killer." (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (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: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The Zune was never better than a mixed bag. Horrible PC interface. Awful. No Mac interface. But the audio quality was very good.
I've got an old 30gb Zune that I bought refurbished on Woot! for about 60 bucks if I remember correctly, and it's been a hardy companion when I ride the bike. I bought it for my daughter but she scoffed at it's not being an Apple product so I ended up with it and was surprised and pleased by its stellar audio quality. It's hit the ground pretty often, so I've got no reason to
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure if he was discussing the merits of the German Liberal Party you'd say "Oh vote Nazi and shut up. tl;dr and no-one else did either"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It was pretty impressive. The less talented poster wouldn't even consider going Nazi when talking about portable audio players. It takes a special person to think outside the box that way.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, to be honest, FDP is pretty much superfluous - it is a single-issue party, and this single issue is corporate welfare. No merits whatsoever. It is called "Moevenpick-Partei" [spiegel.de] for a reason.
Re: (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 contro
Re: (Score:2)
software is usually much cheaper than competitors but you can't do everything you want
The Apple software I've run on Windows (iTunes, Quicktime) is pretty poor - Counter-intuitive UI, kludgy, bloaty (auto-install of Bonjour etc.). Does Microsoft software on a Mac suffer the same issues?
Re: (Score:2)
They all have bad sides and good sides
Which is why it's best if none of them win. Their bad sides all get a lot bigger when they are in a dominant market position.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:5, Interesting)
It looks like they're really making good progress. Windows 7, XBOX360, Windows Phone 7...All awesome products.
I kind of feel like Vista really lowered the bar and now people are happy with anything that isn't strictly worse than the previous version. I mean sure, Windows 7 has features that Windows XP doesn't, but most home users use it because it came installed on their PC and most businesses are upgrading to it primarily because they skipped Vista and they don't want to be still running XP when Microsoft discontinues support for it, rather than because it's so awesome that they had to have it.
And look at WP7: About the best you can say about it is that it's an improvement over WP6. But it still seems like a day late and a dollar short compared to its competitors.
It's good, since I really wouldn't want to live in a world dominated by Apple and Google.
I'll take Apple and Google over Microsoft any day. And realistically that seems to be the way things are going -- Android is well-positioned to become the mobile commodity OS with the lion's share of sales volume, especially in the budget market, with iOS securing the position MacOS has always held relative to Windows, i.e. lower volume but higher margins.
Re: (Score:3)
Windows 7, XBOX360, Windows Phone 7...All awesome products.
I happen to agree with you that many of Microsoft's new produts are big improvements over their previous entries when evaluated individually. However, I think Microsoft's problem is that new mass-market computer products can't be evaluated as "standalone" anymore. It's all about the "ecosystem." This is why the Zune and pretty much every other standalone MP3 player has such a tiny marketshare, and why Microsoft tablets have lost out as well.
In the brave new computing world (His Steveness likes to call it th
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (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: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: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
They kept plugging on while their competitors make mistakes (eg Netscape vs. IE5). IE5 was definitely better.
You're forgetting what IE was. Microsoft has never made a dime from IE other than as a lock-in strategy to keep people tied to Windows, nor did they ever intend to. So if your point is that Microsoft can execute a successful lock-in strategy then the point is well taken, but if you're trying to argue that their products are good for the consumer... I don't think lock-in is very good for the consumer.
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:5, Funny)
I've never used it, so I'll see your "happy" and raise you an "ecstatic".
Re: (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
Re:Microsoft has been changing (Score:4, Informative)
Did a quick check to amuse myself. Hmm, first 6 adds on every Bing search result are spam, pretty much guaranteed. Beyond that definitely more spam on Bing than on Google, oh wait, I am using https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/optimizegoogle/ [mozilla.org] to filter out crappy sites (including ebay). Well since you seem to be doing M$ advertising, is there a similar addon for Bing on IE to Optimize Google on Firefox.
Back on topic, I guess Ballmer's uncle is going to be really really disappointed to hear no more Zune, their number one customer. Using you phone to listen to music and watch streaming video is neat and convenient, apart from battery life and data download limits http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-battery-life-charts/ [cnet.com].
Oh yeah? (Score:3)
Those aren't crickets! That's a WMA file of recorded cricket sounds being streamed from Microsoft directly to my Zune!
Well, that's the point of it, right? (Score:2)
Those aren't crickets! That's a WMA file of recorded cricket sounds being streamed from Microsoft directly to my Zune!
They actual crickets have been fed to the office toad, but the service lives on ...
Expect some delays if you ever need help, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately the crickets ended quite abruptly, since Microsoft has turned off their DRM servers.
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:5, Funny)
How can it stop playing?! I have PlaysForSure(TM)!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (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: (Score:2)
"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?
True. That's just what happened when Compaq went down.
Time machine sends back Slashdot story from 2020 (Score:4, Funny)
"Microsoft announces today that it will be suspending production on it's WinPhone. We want to focus our attention on the next big thing just as soon as Apples let's us know what that is."
Re: (Score:2)
+1
Re: (Score:2)
Just priceless
Re: (Score:3)
They failed when they tried to follow Apple into the MP3 player market, and now they are planning on following Apple into the mobile phone market?!
Apple were not the first into either of those markets, so I don't know why you'd say "follow Apple".
Re: (Score:2)
Who would you say they're following?
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: (Score:2)
To add to your comment: if someone else starts first and you pass them, they then are following you.
Not that Microsoft entered the portable music device industry first but even if they did, they would still be following Apple's lead once Microsoft fell behind. Even Sony was following Apple soon after the release of the iPod and they had been making portable music devices for decades..
Re: (Score:2)
Apple were not the first into either of those markets, so I don't know why you'd say "follow Apple".
You don't? It's because they're doing it so successfully. Kind of like how kids wanted to be like Michael Jordan instead of being like whoever the first guy to play basketball was (meanwhile we future slashdotters were taking apart computers).
Re: (Score:2)
They should shutter their business and release all their developers to go work on real projects that have a hope of succeeding. The only division worth keeping is the gaming division.
Ridiculous. If you owned the Windows and Office divisions, I seriously doubt you'd "shutter" them and concentrate on gaming. Those business make serious bucks, and shuttering a business is a bit more complicated than ranting about shortcomings of vision.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Why? Seems to be pretty much spot on. MS has been playing catchup for years. Only their obscene warchest (and Office lock-in) has kept them going.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Don't be silly, bashing Microsoft is the only proven way to get modded up on Slashdot. Doesn't even matter if what you say is true or not.
Re:What a joke. (Score:5, Informative)
Don't be silly, bashing Microsoft is the only proven way to get modded up on Slashdot. Doesn't even matter if what you say is true or not.
It's really true. I mean, I thought making outrageously disrespectful statements about your mom and her promiscuity would be an easy way to get modded up "funny" - but for some reason people seem to think those statements are true...
Re: (Score:2)
You obviously haven't tried bashing Microsoft here in quite a while. There's plenty of MS fans and/or astroturfers with mod points these days.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, some days, I kind of wish I'd slept through the last five or so years, too.