I am trying to post a google cache link for the above paper.

http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/nossdav06/pdf/kirovski.pdf

anyone dumb enough to buy into Microsoft’s visions of
Urge, Media Player, PlayForSure etc

Hmmm, what about anyone foolish enough to buy into Apple’s lock-in? Is that OK then?

MS partners screwed themselves by being fundamentally incapable of competing. David and Goliath is a fairy story. If you want to stomp on Goliath, call in Goliaths bigger brother.

Same applies to the software/media side of the equation. Apple has no meaningful competition and its far from perfect or well priced. MS are giving us meaningful choice which, in this market at least, will be a novelty.

Good luck to them. Zune sounds refreshing to me.

MS could’ve made sure that PlaysforSure worked 99% of the time by sending more resources (staff) to its partners. MS could’ve built a better WMP and delivered it sooner. MS could’ve made WMP work better with player software – they could’ve developed a more comprehensive player software for their partners to use (or not). There were lots of possible things MS could’ve done, but chose not to. And now, how much effort will MS spend on PlaysforSure and such for those “loser hardware companies” now that Zune is here? (Answer this without being a fanboy either way.)

But the real reason MS is entering this device market is that it has occurred to them that the iPod is expanding beyond music/video to other things and aiming to become everything a pocketable, mobile device can reasonably be. This is evidenced by the Nike iPod kit and by Jobs statements at that intro. This is a threat as the mobile market becomes as important if not more so than the desktop.

Origami, MS’ previous platform entry for this mobile space, has proven to be a smashing success, uh, no, failure, because it is too big (not pocketable), too pricey, wrong feature set, bad UI, whatever, and the big boys refuse to make Origami devices. The PDA, which MS has tried to dominate with Windows Mobile, is stagnant, and not evolving into this space. And the Smartphone, MS’ other leg, is still a possibility, except that MS knows Apple is evolving the iPod with communications capabilities (iPhone?). And none of the phone makers is moving quickly enough in the other direction.

Read between the lines on both sides, guys. Note Apple’s many mentions of “product pipeline”, and the timing of this “Zune email” following Apple’s “we’re not sitting around doing nothing”.

Many software product companies have come to believe that Microsoft will partner with them only till such time they roll the features of your product into theirs. There are no safe “white spaces” that Microsoft will promise to leave to partners.

An uncharitable view is that larger companies will “partner” till the feature sets and demand for a new product are established. During this time multiple “partners” will jockey with each other to refine the product. A lucky one may get acquired – others will be left in the lurch.

Such is life in the big city – but next time a big company calls for a partnership don’t let the euphoria stand in the way of a full analysis of the consequences, and your ability to make money from this partnership in the short term

You are, as far as I can see, using Zune to bash Microsoft and label it as anti-partner.

I believe attempts at explaining the move, and looking at its potential impact on the market, would be both more useful and more in line with your blog content.

Don’t forget the likes of rhapsody, napster, yahoo music, & others that are being left out of the party! It’s sad but they should have known better.

“The service and device will not be PlaysForSure compliant, meaning you will not be able to use your Zune player with Napster or Vongo, for example.”

Hopefully they’ll be able to switch to MP3 one day, as Yahoo is already out trying to push for! (I think they just realized that they are screwed if they stick with playsforsure)
http://ymusicblog.com/blog/2006/07/19/buy-a-customized-jessica-simpson-mp3-at-yahoo-music/

Maybe the major music labels will wake up and realize that the only companies DRM is helping are Apple and Microsoft.

I point you to the Treo 700w. Looks like the Treo 700p, but cannot be operated with one thumb, as the 700p can. Requires more clicking and menu navigation for basic tasks. Overall, not nearly as usable as the Palm version. Now, yes, that was a Palm device, but my point is just having a look-a-like doesnt mean squat. And it just reinforces the perception that MS cant innovate.