GigaOM

I get the sense that this won’t be enough much like Xbox wasn’t enough. But I do think they probably have the right platform approach to make this work down the line just like Xbox 360 is a vast improvement.

The crazy thing is that brown one. My first thought was they are idiots. But every blogger who got their hands on one said the brown one is hot.

If the music swap works as described, this is a true innovation for MS and we’ll start to see real competition and an innovators’ horse race. I doubt Apple will acknowledge Zune for the next 12 months or more until significant sales numbers come out that we can make projections with. In meantime, Creative ought to drop their suit against Apple and close ranks with MS who should pay Creative a “licensing fee” the way Intel throws around marketing dollars to hobble the competition.

Disclosure of Digita Music Devices:
Home: Sonos w/ 3 zones + Rhapsody
Work/Travel: Treo - 2gb sd card
Gym: Creative NuVo

Om,

After reading this article, I certainly feel that it has too many features and its a turnoff. Regardless I’m sticking with my iPod.

Rushi

Windows-only is a non-starter. Sorry folks, but the 2% Mac share number is highly mis-leading in this industry.

soooo what about Tim Bucher’s Zing ? is it already squeezed between xPods and Zunes?

1. Isn’t listening to music a personal thing? This sounds as intrusive as bluetooth based ads - something that majority of users don’t need or want. After all, who has a better sense of the pulse of the mobile music users need? Apple or Microsoft?

2. There are already third-party companies that are building recommendation and music discovery solutions around iTMS (iLike and Garangeband.com come to mind). Is wifi music sharing for “discovery” purposes that big a deal?

3. There may be a market for this among pre-teens who’s music tastes are fully developed. Hard to tell since I am not a pre-teen and not zuned in to that market.

Conclusion: I am afraid that the sharing feature will be a much bigger turn-off than on. BTW, I like the brown Zune.

If you could share mp3’s wirelessly between devices, they will sell out, repeatedly. I doubt Microsoft will have that in the device, however. I like the brown Zune too.

bricktop
“Creative ought to drop their suit against Apple and close ranks with MS who should pay Creative a “licensing fee” the way Intel throws around marketing dollars to hobble the competition.”
apple settled with creative and a part of that settlement was that if creative won against anybody esle apple wud habve to pay less.

I think apple will make creative sue msft… funny isnt it

I think the wireless connectivity has potential, as long as there is an option to turn it off when not required. Is that an option?

Another important aspect is which media player it synchronizes with because some are more user-friendly than others. Also, people are so used to iTunes now that it will be take very effective marketing and branding to get existing users to switch.

Overall, I think it has promise. We’ll just have to wait and see until the first sales numbers get released.

“The crazy thing is that brown one. My first thought was they are idiots. But every blogger who got their hands on one said the brown one is hot.”

I’d say it was great if they sent me a free one, too. :D

for my daughter (13), the iPod has become the sad means of youthful expression for the aging hipster (me). It’s too popular to be cool anymore. No kid wants what their parents have. So something has to replace it. This looks interesting. And the iRiver Klix is apparently hot according to her.

To be honest, Zune is ugly. With all the that money, it still surprises that Microsoft pulls off ugly products.

Go Zune! Suck it up, lame apple fanboys.

While a lot of Apple fanboys (I’m one) may be defending the iPod against the Zune (I actually ike the brown one now that I’ve seen it a few times, it’s very HGTVish) I think implying that only Apple fanboys need to suck it up is totally off the mark.

I have to guess that many more non-Apple owning people own iPods than those that own other Apple products. Otherwise the Mac marketshare would be greater than it is.

The only people I’ve ever heard wish their iPod had some sort of wireless built-in are hardcore geeks. Most people I believe could care less. Just like I bet most people could care less if iPods can now play Pac Man (though I think it’s cool but unikely to sell any extra iPods).

After looking at pictures on engadget and other blogs I think the zune player will have to go on a slim fast diet pretty soon. Although I am not too thrilled about its looks I think if MS do it right this may be turn out to be a good player after all.

Most reviewers seem to think that the wifi song sharing is a non-feature, mentioning that they wouldnt want to be sharing music with strangers. Well how about sharing with friends and associates.I have friends who have similar/different music tastes and this would be good way to expand what I normally listen to.

If MS can integrate a streaming server (a la tiversity or something of that sort) into the zune desktop app it would enable streaming of audio (possibly video) to the zune player over wi-fi which would be useful IMO.

Overall I think I will wait for version 2.0. For now my quirky but feature rich Sony Vaio VGF player will do.

DaScud

It’s to bad we are paying so much attention to a Toshiba Gigabeat with a radio in it. Microsoft has never been known for being able to release a good 1.0 product and this will be no different.

After thinking about it - I am sure that this device will be as successful as the Ultimate TV and the Origami, both of which are absolutely fantastic products that are taking over the market by storm.

This just in - Origami sales can now officially be counted on TWO hands.

Ultimate TV is poised to make a comeback as soon as they can figure out how to stop making the hard disk space disappear. The last 10 customers still using that product really would love that fixed ASAP.

Wifi connectivity makes the Zune desirable, and let’s admit it, having an iPod isn’t really cool anymore.

Who needs a crappy battery an no file system integration?

Too many features for a 1.0 product. Too many!

Mobile phone is the iPod killer… Mobile phones are the only mobile devices that matter…

Demise of a Darling: iPod market share crashes to 14% amid management denials
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/07/demiseofa_dar.html

Mobile phone is the iPod killer… Mobile phones are the only mobile devices that really matter…

Demise of a Darling: iPod market share crashes to 14% amid management denials
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/07/demiseofa_dar.html

The first Zune should’ve been iPod nano-sized, not iPod sized. And iPod nano-priced, not iPod priced.

Since the mini and nano appeared, they’ve been best sellers by far. The iPod made a comeback, but it’s still in second, primarily because of its video playback. The 2006 Zune will have neither the small size nor the video playback.

Because Zune’s differentiator is sharing, it needs its community of Zune owners to grow quickly - theoretically, the network effect will make linear Zune sales growth cause exponential value growth. But at the suggested $299, it is too expensive to grow a community, especially as Xmas gifts. It needs to be priced at $149 or $199.

Poor product analysis by MS will cause it to miss its window of opportunity. By next year, the arrival of 802.11n’s low-power mode and lower prices for flash will lead Apple to put it in the iPod, to share not only music but movies.

The Wifi feature is great but only if the battery can last long enough for me to socioliaze…Microsoft confirmed that the Zune will play Podcast…or should we call this Zuncast!!!

Gates once made a statement, quite a while ago that the age of standalone-mp3 players were nearing a close. I strongly believe that the mobile phones of tomorrow will be packed (a few models are REAL close to being as good as JUST an mp3 player) with enough to be better than an individual camera, mp3 player or umm… phone!

In terms of social networking, Bluetooth has been around for HOW long again?

Brown is a bold move that will pay off to distinguish Zune from anything else. Love it or hate it, they got us to talk about it.

ZuneBrown.com