ResearchWill the Microsoft Zune Catch Up?
Nothing stirs up the geek and gadget culture like some dramatic competition. And this time Microsoft, no stranger to chasing it's competitor's taillights, has really handicapped itself. They let the Apple iPod wallow in an unfettered portable MP3 player market uncontested for a solid four years, before tentatively pushing out it's own portable player. Possibly they were distracted by their detour with the Ultra-Mobile PC, their tablet device which was most likely targeted at competing with Nicholas Negroponte's "one-hundred-dollar laptop" project. And then, it seems obvious that the idea that a portable MP3 player would be a market worth getting into in the first place just didn't seem feasible to Microsoft. 640K should be enough for anybody, eh, Bill?
But here's the Zune, and, unlike previous Microsoft efforts, a real attempt has been made to create a new, unique design instead of simply knocking off the competition's look and feel. The Zune has a feature set quite different from the iPod, obviously aimed at giving consumers some solid reasons to choose it.
Zune comes equipped with a thirty gigabyte hard drive, a built-in FM radio tuner, a generous three-inch screen, and Wi-Fi networking out of the box. It is also the one to support Microsoft's own file formats of WMA for audio and WMV for video. Some pre-loaded music, video, and images ships with the device.
A key difference between Zune and the iPod is the Zune-to-Zune communication enabled by the Wi-Fi. This has enabled the portable sharing of songs, recordings, playlists and pictures with other Zunes. Tracks which you have received onto your Zune from another Zune can be played for up to three days or three plays - whichever comes first - after which it expires unless a media license for the track is purchased from the Zune Marketplace online. In keeping with Microsoft's commitment to Digital Rights Management policies, recipients of shared tracks cannot re-send music or audio files to another device. Also, not all songs are eligible for sharing; record companies can flag songs from the Zune Marketplace as a "non-distributable" file.
The Zune can also connect to Microsoft's own video game console, the Xbox 360, which will be giving users the ability to stream music, videos, and pictures. Microsoft's Windows operating system also supports Zune Software which can also stream music, videos, and pictures to Xbox 360 by way of a home desktop computer.
As part of an effort to build a complete end-to-end digital ecosystem through which to manage all media forms, the Zune uses a new Digital Rights Management (DRM) system to protect content when it is incompatible with other DRM systems such as Microsoft "PlaysForSure" technology. This ecosystem includes a PC client running from a Microsoft Windows system and an online store called the Zune Marketplace. This creates an accessible online market from which you can purchase media content online with Microsoft marketplace "Points", which are bought with cash.
In addition the the other DRM features, the Zune will also be a sharp watchdog patrolling the free sharing of Creative Commons and General Public License content. When it detects such a file under this license, it automatically encrypts it with it's own file format "wrapper" so that the previously "loose" file becomes a DRM-protected file as well. So it seems that the Microsoft team really did think of everything!
Only time will tell if the Zune has what it takes to pull up even with Apple's mighty iPod. But, regardless of which one comes out ahead, it is always true that competition spurs innovation, and this translates into giving the consumer that next shiny new feature.