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September 14, 2006

Zune Promises MySpace-like Connectivity

John Biggs

83 comments »

Just got off the phone with Microsoft about the new Zune and the magic therein. It’s a 30GB player that comes in three colors - black, white, and brown - and plays back most major file formats. That much you can read over at CrunchGear so head over there if you want the specs.

Of specific interest to TC readers, however, is the social sharing system. The Zune has 802.11 networking built in and you can send a song to your friend for three days or three plays, which ever comes first. The goal, obviously, is to sell music. However, we could also conceivably see this as a MySpace-like network of users who pop music to each other with giddy abandon and infect others with their musical stylings on the train (perhaps a sandwich board that says “I’ll Send My New HARDCORE RAP Single to Your Zune. Talk to me. Please?”) Once you get back home you can connect to the Zune Marketplace - and presumably an artists home page - where you can learn more and buy music.


[Picture courtesy of Engadget]

Clearly all the data isn’t in yet, but this definitely pushes the MP3 player out of the pocket and into the realm of social networking. The question, obviously, is what is Apple going to do about this and, as a corrallary, how low Apple and Creative shares are selling as we speak? Perhaps MS could create a “Zune Inside” logo for those guys? Or maybe fund a halfway house for underconnected MP3 players?

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 14th, 2006 at 10:07 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Vince

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am

    Looks can be deceiving…

  2. danny

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:15 am

    Social music sharing…me like….

    BTW, is it just me or the Zune looks kinda drab?

  3. Ted

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:19 am

    “myspace like”? that’s a little misleading.

  4. Rob W

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:21 am

    I like that they have annouced support for AAC and h.264. But looking at their software app Zune Marketplace - there does not seem to be any support for podcasting. It would be great if you could share podcasts wirelessly and then when you docked - it automatically subscribed you to that podcast.

    At best it looks like a niche player - not an iPod killer.

    And someone fire the person that came up with the puppy sh#t brown color.

  5. Sean

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:24 am

    I’m not really into the zune, but the screen is awesome. Apple seriously needs to get their ass in gear and release a widescreen iPod. What is their problem anyways?

  6. Andy

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:27 am

    No, aw no… You’re serious? You mean it really looks like that? And it doesn’t have excellent podcast support built in? And you can’t buy songs wirelessly?

    Well… I _WAS_ considering one…

  7. Bryan

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:27 am

    Music sharing is awesome. I actualy dont own an iPod (believe it or not) but my brothers and sisters all do, and I cant count the amount of times that I’ve heard “I want that song too, where can i download it???” whether it be from them or their friends. In any case, the ability to share a song or album or movie clip will be great. The downside is the rule of three. 3 Plays or 3 Days … very bad.

  8. WhateverMan

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:28 am

    A little premature in the celebration are we? Clearly this is an interesting product. But to suggest that it is the ipod killer is really wild.

    Most people in Silicon Valley and Redmond do not understand consumer marketing. Apple is one of the few companies that currently does. Do not undestimate the power of the brand.

    Explain the ability of ‘True Religion’ to charge $300 charges for the same product sold by Levi’s for $30 and you’ll understand consumer marketing.

  9. isibingo

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:48 am

    it looks nice but ,will it bring a competition to apples’s ipod?

  10. whatshisname

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:50 am

    wth all their billions, why couldn’t they get a designer to jazz up the hardware.

    1) Why are the dials always black? A white player with a white dial would look a lot better.
    2) Why brown? blue, red, green…but brown? bawf.

    Technically…

    They should allow members to have virtual storage of their playlists (which can be viewable by others if optioned) and be able to buy and download via wifi. This is a must and would completely destroy the iPod fanbase.

  11. M.

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:53 am

    If/When someone hacks the DRM that stops it from being 3 plays/3days… it might be marginally useful. But of course all your friends need one, too… so you can share a song 3 times?

    Problem is, that’s built around what companies want, NOT what users want or will do. Definitely won’t succeed on those accounts.

    Screen and HD size is nice, but ease of use with existing formats, existing purchased music, podcasting, etc. are what will sell it, if at all.

  12. Steve Tsuida

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:31 am

    “…as a corrallary, how low Apple and Creative shares are selling as we speak?”

    I just checked, and AAPL was trading at 74.60 up from 73.71.

    Zune-to-Zune music sharing sounds like a killer app on paper, but the _motivations_ for the viral spread of social networking sites won’t necessarily carry over to the music player world. The bulk of the market wear headphones and escew concert t-shirts for a reason, they don’t _want_ to share their music or broadcast their tastes.

    Besides the lack of reward-motivation to share my Eric Clapton Tracks, I’ve got to overcome the problem of range. A MySpace user has global range, a Zune user has Wi-Fi range.

  13. Rog

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:33 am

    Is it just me or is the Zune kind of ugly looking?

  14. Brian

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:36 am

    This just in! We have decided to presume that the Zune will have *INSERT BUZZWORD HERE* without any basis in fact or reality! Exciting!

    Apple? It’s up 22 cents.

    I’m honestly very interested in how the Zune will do, but if people keep over-hyping it like this, I think it’s going to be a flop, or at best not have these features until version 3.0…which would make the most sense.

  15. BingeBoy

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:49 am

    Apple has nothing to worry about.

  16. Robbie

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:54 am

    Hmmm, now just waiting for the first with a virus infected song and seeing al those confused people getting out of the train.

  17. Justin

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:59 am

    It’s a good idea, but it seems a little like a waste of money when you can just meet people who like the same music on myspace. It’s easy to discover and share music with social networking without buying a whole new player.

  18. Rafael Santos

    September 14th, 2006 at 12:04 pm

    CSS … Cansei de Ser Sexy @ Zune MarketPlace ownz! lol

    Imagine me saying… “got brown Zune?”… not cool =(

  19. Ed

    September 14th, 2006 at 12:20 pm

    Store - player/software - device => simple integration. That’s what Apple has (brown-color player ommitted).

    Subscription music? I would prefer satelite over subscription music.

    I’ll admit it. I’m a Mac freak. On it, I use iLife to create some pretty neat videos with music that I’ve downloaded from iTunes. Since iTunes is part of iLife, each piece of software integrates pretty easily. How would Zune help me here? Don’t know.

    Also, I use my iPod to check out the videos I’ve edited. Yea, it’s pretty neat. The screen size isn’t relevant. It’s good enough. Again, don’t know how Zune could help me here.

  20. Jason Sperske

    September 14th, 2006 at 12:39 pm

    You know if you’re interested in social music sharing, you might want to check out Radio Mixtape (www.radiomixtape.com). We (yes I work on the web site), are currently uploading Sub Pop’s promotional catalog, and we offer easy flash/JavaScript widget embedding of mix tapes and albums rating, and we let you download the full DRM free MP3’s of every track and don’t impose any restrictions on sharing (in fact we encourage it). The service is brand new (we officially launched 6 days ago) and growing fast, and it’s completely free. We are also setting up relationships with more labels, and a few other websites. And Michael Arrington
    if your reading this, I’ve been in contact with Nick about reviewing it. If your curious, there is a flash video on our site explaining how to use it (just click on the large red button hat says “Launch Demo!”

    -Jason

  21. NeoTechie

    September 14th, 2006 at 12:55 pm

    If Xbox is a predictor of MS’s success among other giants like Sonny, then Zune will be a success against its rival iPod.

  22. Colby Grenier

    September 14th, 2006 at 1:04 pm

    Looks like I won’t have any trouble finding a brown model in stock.

  23. Terry Xu

    September 14th, 2006 at 2:06 pm

    Woohoo, go go Microsoft, fight Apple! Go go Apple, fight back!
    BITE!!!

  24. Herman H Ng

    September 14th, 2006 at 2:21 pm

    At this point of its life cycle, I won’t mind seeing Microsoft put less emphasis on the brand and more emphasis on the fundamentals. They need to use the zune to define a new category of user experience with portable media players. Once they get that right, they can jazz up its looks.

  25. Sean Percival

    September 14th, 2006 at 2:21 pm

    Will startup bands be able to create their own page and sell music or will it just be for signed bands?

    Myspace music has helped bands with promotion but yet to offer a way for the artist to sell their tunes and monetize their efforts.

  26. Herman H Ng

    September 14th, 2006 at 2:27 pm

    Imagine watching OkGo’s music videos on the zune!

  27. Michael Grimm

    September 14th, 2006 at 3:01 pm

    I like it - especially the screen. I’m not so sure about the wireless networking though, hopefully they improve it to more than 3 plays or 3 days.

  28. Matt

    September 14th, 2006 at 4:12 pm

    Peep the very slick user interface…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmD6a8N8Q4

  29. Alex

    September 14th, 2006 at 5:04 pm

    You guys are so sold on Apple it’s not funny. I was spreading the hate when Zune was announced, now I am not so sure.

    If Apple came out with some of the features that Microsoft has just announced, you would all be bowing down to the Apple gods for their creativity.

    I am sold already. Microsoft has provided me with something that can be more than just a player. Thats what I wanted with the iPod, but they have had their chance and have failed keep up with the play.

    Although I don’t like limits at all, 3 plays seems ok if I want to hear a song enough to download it.

    Congratulations to Microsoft on this one, I think they have put a step in the right direction.

  30. Tcruncher2

    September 14th, 2006 at 6:31 pm

    I think this is great. Microsoft are seriously looking at this as a competitor to Apple and what I find particularly interesting is that Microsoft are moving into a new product segment that has been previously ruled by Apple, and more so, whose traditional rivals are the big tech makers Sony etc.

    The social application does sound awesome, and with Microsoft adding another $1 Billion to their advertising budget for the release of Windows Vista and related products – you can bet they will push this with the new operating system. Their distributors will be told to push Vista and Zune together – and when you rule 80% of the operating systems on the market – this is a formidable competitor in anyone’s book.

    It will be interesting to see how Apple responds – particularly because realistically, there haven’t been any new “wow” innovations with the Ipod for some time. They keep pushing size as an added bonus, when I don’t really think that it’s all that important to 70% of the Ipod market that just want to listen to music and have no interest in Videos. I bought a 20 GIG 4th generation Ipod, and even with over 3,000 songs I still have around 9GIG left. What’s the point in me buying a new one with 80GIG if I don’t even use all the 20GIGs I have?

    Either way, Zune is going to bring a new dimension to the market and if anything – let’s hope that Apple respond with something equally as awesome.

  31. Frank Cefalu

    September 14th, 2006 at 8:25 pm

    For all the users, The interface on Zune is Actually Windows Media Center from Windows Vista Ultimate. Just so you can see how music playing is on Vista ^_-.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmD6a8N8Q4

    Kudos to Matt for the link.

    I think its bad that Apple was banking on Ipod to be its cash cow like Sony with Playstation. Especially with no unique innovation after its prime creation.

    Well we will see what happens, both products are very competitive.

  32. lemon obrien

    September 14th, 2006 at 8:57 pm

    if you’re a musican and your stuff is not sold at the Zune Market place, and someone uploads your song into their Zune player, after they bought it; but, then they transfer it to their friends….can you sue Microsoft for copyright infringement?

    p2p was deemed illegal b/c it was “built to steal.” Now, why is this not different? You only have to infringe once for the law to be broken. Each infringement can cost $150,000.

    If you can’t buy it from the Zune Market Place, then how is this not stealing…and what if I’m an artist that doesn’t want this…

    i would like to sue microsoft…its not hard, and infringement, given the p2p case, would be easy to prove…”the device promotes theft.”

  33. blogsaic.com

    September 14th, 2006 at 9:25 pm

    Is it just me, or is Zune a really BrokeBack Mounatin sort of name? I think hardware DRM is better than time based or times played DRM…however this leads to clones…the best DRM is Vinyl…saying that Zune is like MySpace is like saying Christmas is like MySpace…

  34. joey

    September 14th, 2006 at 10:22 pm

    There is this this called an external hard disk that has been around a while. It’s great for sharing music with no copyright restrictions, I heard people have used them to copy information before. Also, there is a program or two (or twenty) that allows you to rip your iPod tracks onto another computer in a fairly straight-forward manner. Also, Wi-Fi file transferring = decreased battery life. Enable it to use the Wi-Fi connection to find your friends on the internet and it might be worth something.

  35. LKM

    September 14th, 2006 at 11:52 pm

    First, Sony’s brown MacBook copy. Now, Microsoft’s brown iPod copy. What’s up with that? We don’t even have to make up jokes anymore, they practically write themselves…

  36. jeremy Baines

    September 15th, 2006 at 2:59 am

    ahhhhh… take it away… It offends my eyes!!!!

  37. Pascal

    September 15th, 2006 at 3:28 am

    Music sharing on the train? Yeah, right. Good luck bumping into another Zune user. Hehe.

  38. Roo

    September 15th, 2006 at 5:04 am

    How is this thing powered? Large bright screen + WiFi = Big battery or short play times.

    I think I will wait and see how it handles in the real world before deciding where my money goes.

  39. crazypalm

    September 15th, 2006 at 5:06 am

    It is nice to hear that someone has brought Music2.0 fresh air. However, it comes with Microsoft, hmm…I am sure many guys will turn against it.

    quite curious to see what is the react from Apple.

  40. Dimitar Vesselinov

    September 15th, 2006 at 8:55 am

    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.bl.....a_dar.html

  41. NJG from NYC

    September 15th, 2006 at 10:22 am

    *waves hand*

    This is not the i-pod killer you are looking for.

  42. Chris

    September 15th, 2006 at 10:26 am

    http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Acorrallary

    I think another obvious question is whether Mr. Biggs knows what a corollary is, and, as a corollary, whether he should be trying to prove anyth theorems involving about vaporware.

  43. Chris

    September 15th, 2006 at 10:42 am

    Ok, I’ll readily admit it takes some zing out when you trip over yourself. Regardless, my point about drawing a corollary between vaporware and share prices stands. On top of that, Creative has barely been a player (no pun intended) for almost 2 years, when iPod began its total domination. [1]

    Granted, I’m all for competition, as it makes things (price, features, performance) better for everyone, but Zune is no iPod-killer. It would take a massive slip-up by Apple to lose its position, something along the lines of a recall of all ~35 million iPods manufactured in the past year due to exploding flash chips or HDDs.

    [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#Sales

  44. MikeDeH

    September 15th, 2006 at 11:06 am

    I havn’t seen anyone mention price yet…$299?? More than the comprable Ipod video? More importantly will it work with my mac?

  45. Stephen

    September 15th, 2006 at 11:07 am

    Me thinks it is more like vaporware and actually needs to be shipped before these ideas are actually seen by real people.

    My guess is that it may just be a Creative Zen Killer! Apple has plenty of time to add larger screens, wifi, sharing and subscriptions if they determine that the consumer wants this.

    So far in the “real” world iTunes has dominated and subscription services stocks are the ones dropping like rocks while they give away stuff just to beg for users. Not to mention the DRM haCKS plaguing them.

    There is not one feature in the Zune that Apple could NOT add except for the color BROWN as this would cause HUGE laugher among users! I remember Microsoft calling the iPod a toy. Now they are trying their best to “climb Mount Everest in sandals.”

    Do not get me wrong I LOVE competition. That is good for ALL users. Anyone notice that nothing Microsoft does, ever supports anything but Windows. iTunes supports Macs and Windows the same, it does not lock you in to a computer platform. Yes it does lock you in to iTunes, but I STILL CHOOSE MY COMPUTER PLATFORM!

  46. vanni

    September 15th, 2006 at 12:37 pm

    Briggs is pushing vapourware, so says daringfireball.net. I agree. what a lame “news” item. Zoom Zoom or Zune Zero…. wait and see.

  47. dangitman

    September 15th, 2006 at 4:27 pm

    Did Apple make a huge fuss about the iPod before it was released? No. Did they claim it would be some sort of revolution that would change the world? No. Online commenters claimed how lame it was that Apple released a product that was “just an MP3 player.”

    They just released the product, and let people try it out. No pre-announcement. Mac only. No music store. No flashy TV ads or silhouette dancers. A handful of Mac users tried the product, and word-of-mouth spread.

    Microsoft is doing it exactly backwards. They are talking and buying flashy marketing campaigns and “edgy ads” - without having a product in people’s hands. But people don’t buy products just because of marketing. They are just setting people up for disappointment.

    Talk is cheap. Making a portable product that works reliably in the real-world, and feels good to use, is not easy.

  48. dangitmanlamer

    September 15th, 2006 at 4:47 pm

    Yes exactly ! Well said you Mac lover. Just like all those idiotic commercials that Apple serves all over the TV network. They suck and they will always suck. Microsoft is not making those stupid commercials trying to make someone else look stupid. Apple is the one that is desperate. While they shit all over the airwaves, Microsoft is selling ;)

    And now when OSX86 works perfectly on both architectures, Intel as well as AMD, and so many people already have installed OSX on their PCs, where is Apple hardware future standing ? They can’t sell a shit to ordinary people, all they can sell is to those fucking designing companies full of pale self-called designers.

    BTW, did you know that Apple can’t run Flash properly ? It lags and it’s slugish, even on G5 and these new babies MacBook and MacBook Pro. So much about Apple.

  49. dawanr

    September 16th, 2006 at 12:46 am

    Oh boy this is such a boneheaded article.

    “users who pop music to each other with giddy abandon and infect others with their musical stylings on the train”

    Don’t you get it?! The whole attraction of a personal music player (iPod, Zune, and indeed the old Walkman) is precisely so that people DON’T have to talk to people on the train! So they can inhabit their own little bubble world with their own soundtrack, and ignore the ugly humdrum world going on around them.

    Frankly I don’t want anyone popping me or infecting me on the train, or anywhere else for that matter…

  50. LKM

    September 16th, 2006 at 2:36 am

    > how low Apple and Creative shares are selling as we speak

    By the way, that must be the most idiotic quote I’ve ever read on techcrunch.

  51. Matt

    September 16th, 2006 at 11:33 pm

    Wal-Mart has Zune pages up on their website already…

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog.....cat=538220

  52. Timothy Campbell

    September 17th, 2006 at 2:27 am

    I do not think this will take off, or at least if it does it will not be because of the music sharing features.

    Firstly, for the music sharing to be successfull there will need to be vast numbers of Zune users, what’s the point of being able to share music if you haven’t anyone to share with? And the possibility of there being the numbers of users required is of course low because of Apple’s grip on the market.

    Secondly, I very much doubt it’d be used much anyway. Who’s going to be advertising the fact they are carrying an expensive gadget like a Zune on a train? This feature will be used mainly by friends who have Zunes… many of which currently send music to each other via the internet anyway.

    Perhaps if Microsoft significantly undercut Apple’s iPod pricing it will be successfull, but only perhaps.

  53. dvdtozune

    November 12th, 2006 at 7:31 pm

    Microsoft’s iPod competitor, Zune, will be released on November 14.

  54. filesforfree

    November 12th, 2006 at 7:37 pm

    Is it just me or is the Zune kind of ugly looking?

  55. dvd to zune converter

    November 13th, 2006 at 12:31 am

    Microsoft’s zune was going to release, following zune converter software in http://www.dvdtozuneconverter.com front
    had already issued, had a look,

  56. zune video converter

    November 13th, 2006 at 1:01 am

    Do you know Microsoft company will release zune player, but http://www.zunevideoconverter.net already released
    convert zune software. is it really?

  57. Matt

    November 14th, 2006 at 7:27 am

    I Agree with Timothy. I definitely don’t think the Zune will take off either. My personal opinion, I never owned a Microsoft Product that actually worked. And I can only imagine what problems will come with this Zune, Especially with the music sharing feature.

  58. Matt

    November 14th, 2006 at 7:52 am

    I Agree with Timothy. I really don’t think this Zune will take off either. My own opinion, I never owned a Microsoft product that actually worked. So I can only imagine what problems people will come across with the Zune. And besides Apple Does own the market.

  59. zunevideo

    November 23rd, 2006 at 12:37 am

    Zune had releaseg ,do you know how to Converter DVD to Zune and How to rip DVD and put DVD on Zune? Please visit below website there have some software can help you complete .

    http://www.bestshareware.net/h.....n-zune.htm

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