The Music Den

The release of Microsoft's Zune has been very lackluster in the US. Sales have been lower than expected, with hardly anyone rushing out to buy one on the first day (unlike they were for their Xbox 360 release or the release of the PS3), mainstream media have criticised the looks and quality of the device. At best some reviews state that it's a promising player but overall inferior to the iPod for most people (basically that's how we found it too), others have been a lot more critical complaining about the unfinished feel of the Zune software, the wireless limitations and not forgetting that a portion of the profits go to Universal Music and they consider us all pirates (yarr). The player does seem to have some genuine fans as it does have some benefits over the iPod, but a lot of 'impartial' reviews seem to be following the same formula that it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft is bankrolling an astroturf operation.

Microsoft have decided that for some reason they're only launching in the US initially, and a UK launch could be as late as 2008 (with the end of 2007 most likely). Apparently the reason for the delay is they're looking for a Zune Marketplace partner for Europe rather than running their own music store. Perhaps after the Plays for Sure farce companies are becoming wary of partnering with Microsoft?

The big mistake Microsoft have made is rushing the Zune to market before the Christmas rush. It would have made more sense to make sure everything was right with the product before launching, a few months refining would have lost any Christmas sales but it would have given people a much better first impression of the product. A lot of people say it doesn't matter, most of the flaws Microsoft will fix via software and firmware updates. But will they? You don't want to buy a device that may be better in the future, you want to buy the one which is best now. First impressions do count and although Microsoft have got some fans of the player so do all the non-iPod players but they still have such an insignificant place in the market. Having a bad first impression can damage a product. Remember Netscape 6, it was released out way too early and was very buggy, this was the one product that made most die-hard Netscape hold outs make the switch to IE. Even though 6.1 was a big improvment most of the damage was done. Microsoft have now managed to get the Zune tagged as an also-ran from day one, Apple need to be careful to ensure that they resist the temptation to rush out future iPod revisions otherwise if they release a shoddy product this advantage is lost.

It's interesting to note that in the first week of being on sale no Zune appears in the Amazon.com top 5 list of audio players sold. The Zune appears at number 8 behind six models of iPod and a SanDisk player making it the third best selling brand in the US during its first week, you'd have expected with all the marketing hype surrounding the player that it'd do better than that during the first week. I'd have expected it to have peaked into the top slot the first week and then slip down below Apple the following weeks.

What can Microsoft learn?

They've got a bit of time to kill before the European launch so what can they learn by then? Here's my list of what they need to do in the next few months to make life better for existing Zune owners and potential purchasers in the US as well as make the European launch a big success.

Encourage sharing, really

Make the Wi-Fi capabilities useful. Currently there's no way to remove the 3 day/3 plays restrictions. This needs to be changed (on the other hand it's possible for songs downloaded via the Zune Marketplace to be more restrictive than this, but no way to lessen them). The wireless facility should respect the DRM or lack of it that's on the file. So if you're sharing an MP3 file there should be NO restrictions on usage of the sent file as there's no DRM saying otherwise.

You should not assume someone sharing an unprotected MP3 is a pirate, although this may be the case sometimes you should not limit the potential of a tool just because someone can abuse it. There's a lot of legitimate use that would make the system popular. Independent artists would probably like to encourage sharing of their tunes to spread knowledge of their music, currently the system is no use to them if their music is not on the Zune Marketplace then the Zune can't offer to sell it to them after it expires and people will just forget about the track they received. Allowing unrestricted playback of unrestricted content would be good in this regard. It would also allow budding musicians to share the tracks they've written with their friends, as they don't plan to make money off it then why should the track be limited.

As Apple makes both GarageBand for new musicians and Logic for the professional if Apple ever did add wireless sharing you could be certain that they'd make it easy for people to share the content they've written as it'd encourage usage of these tools. Microsoft need to ensure that their sharing scheme doesn't look like a joke if Apple decide to go down the sharing route.

Of course, it's not all about music, perhaps you'd want to share a podcast, or maybe something interesting you downloaded off YouTube?
In its current form the Zune's sharing mechanism is showing no respect for the customer, it's pandering to the recording studios. Restricting legitimate uses of the device just because someone could do something illegal with it. It's the customer who pays for the device they should have ultimate control.

I'm no supporter of DRM and that includes in the iPod, however, a lot of people use iTunes and the DRM doesn't get in their way, the Zune implementation means DRM gets shoved into the face of anyone who tries to use the sharing facility.

Welcome to the dole queue

The Zune slogan 'Welcome to the Social' needs to go before the product is launched in the UK. Ideally they need to find a slogan that fits most of their target English speaking markets. In parts of the UK 'The Social' refers to the Social Security office and in some other areas it refers to a social club, these are places that are frequented by old men for their cheap beer, neither images I'm sure Microsoft are trying to project for the Zune.

Platform Support

It should be embarassing to Microsoft that Apple actually has better Windows platform support than Microsoft does. I'm not talking about recent articles about Vista not being supported in the current Zune software as it's perfectly obvious to everyone that they will have Vista support before it goes on general release. However, Zune does not support Windows 2000 whereas iTunes does. Microsoft have to remember that the purpose of the Zune is not to sell OS upgrades they should support as many platforms as possible, particularly their own.

Adding Mac support would be a good idea (even if it's just for parity in iTunes v Zune comparison charts), however,  Mac users may have an element of distrust that Microsoft may dump their platform anytime. Then again, looking at the Plays for Sure situation then Windows users should distrust Microsoft too, if the Zune is a flop then the Zune Marketplace may just silently disappear in a few years time. Microsoft needs to do something to raise users level of trust.

NEXT: Page 2 looks at Ballmer, Plays for Sure and Marketing and why they're key in the success of the Zune