Most people agree that Apple’s iPod has a lock on the personal digital music player business. It is a great product and one of the most disruptive technologies in a generation. In the consumer electronics space, the last such disruptive technology was Sony’s Walkman.So, when the iPod has captured the imagination and the market, would you expect another company to go headbanging with Apple to get some of the pie? You bet. It seems Microsoft wants to try this task with its Zune, a portable music device.
"This is not a six-month initiative, where somehow in six months we will have captured the marketplace," Microsoft entertainment and devices division president Robbie Bach was quoted as saying last week by InformationWeek. "This will be a four, five, six-year investment horizon."
The Zune brand is stated to be a line of hardware and software for mobile entertainment, both music and video. Microsoft isn’t aiming to simply recreate the iPod experience, Bach said. "We’re not just doing Zune to copy what others have," Bach said. "We think there are real advantages to what Microsoft has to offer here."
According to IW, YouTube may be as much of an inspiration to Microsoft as the iPod. Mr Bach cited video search as an area where Microsoft hopes to differentiate itself, by enabling users to seek out and recommend to each other multimedia content. Social networking will be another focus for Microsoft, Bach said, pointing to Microsoft’s experience in building the Xbox community.
Apparently, Microsoft hasn’t been sitting on its hands in the coming battle with Apple. It has shifted key developers from the Xbox team to the Zune project. Microsoft’s dependence on their expertise forced it to hold off on initiating Zune until after it shipped Xbox 360, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying. "I wish we’d had the capacity to do Zune a year earlier," he said.
Mr Ballmer also acknowledged that Apple’s iPod is a daunting rival. "There’s no other company, for better or for worse, that would be trying to get into that business at this time," he said. "Nobody else has the optimism, nobody else has the financial resources."
Microsoft says said Zune will be a partner-friendly play; other companies will be invited to build around the Zune brand and platform. "We’re going to encourage people to continue working with PlaysForSure and the interfaces that interact with Media Player and all the technologies that are in the core platform of Windows," Bach said. "We’re going to keep working with our partners on those fronts and hope that, between what we do on PlaysForSure and what we do with Zune, we can scale the Windows ecosystem."
"This is not a six-month initiative, where somehow in six months we will have captured the marketplace," Microsoft entertainment and devices division president Robbie Bach was quoted as saying last week by InformationWeek. "This will be a four, five, six-year investment horizon."
The Zune brand is stated to be a line of hardware and software for mobile entertainment, both music and video. Microsoft isn’t aiming to simply recreate the iPod experience, Bach said. "We’re not just doing Zune to copy what others have," Bach said. "We think there are real advantages to what Microsoft has to offer here."
According to IW, YouTube may be as much of an inspiration to Microsoft as the iPod. Mr Bach cited video search as an area where Microsoft hopes to differentiate itself, by enabling users to seek out and recommend to each other multimedia content. Social networking will be another focus for Microsoft, Bach said, pointing to Microsoft’s experience in building the Xbox community.
Apparently, Microsoft hasn’t been sitting on its hands in the coming battle with Apple. It has shifted key developers from the Xbox team to the Zune project. Microsoft’s dependence on their expertise forced it to hold off on initiating Zune until after it shipped Xbox 360, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying. "I wish we’d had the capacity to do Zune a year earlier," he said.
Mr Ballmer also acknowledged that Apple’s iPod is a daunting rival. "There’s no other company, for better or for worse, that would be trying to get into that business at this time," he said. "Nobody else has the optimism, nobody else has the financial resources."
Microsoft says said Zune will be a partner-friendly play; other companies will be invited to build around the Zune brand and platform. "We’re going to encourage people to continue working with PlaysForSure and the interfaces that interact with Media Player and all the technologies that are in the core platform of Windows," Bach said. "We’re going to keep working with our partners on those fronts and hope that, between what we do on PlaysForSure and what we do with Zune, we can scale the Windows ecosystem."