Looney Zunes

This is probably old news to a lot of people, but I just heard about it today.

30GB Zune apocalypse arrives as devices enter digital coma

Anyone familiar with the company knows Microsoft doesn't innovate, but rather it copies successful or promising competitor's products:

Original Mac OS==>Widows

Lotus123==>Excel

WordPerfect==>Word

Netscape Navigator==>Internet Explorer

PS1/2==>Xbox

iPod==>Zune

Sometimes they've been able to garner customers through improving the product, and sometimes they managed to garner customers by engaging in predatory (and oftentimes illegal) business practices. But regardless, their success is indisputable by the mountains of money reaped in the process of copy-catting.

Enter the Zune. This stillborn child of the House that Gates Built launched with essentially the same features and same pricepoint as the 30gb iPod video, Apple's marquis player at that time. The only thing offered to potential consumers to get them to eschew the iPod was a clunky wifi interface that only let owners "borrow" individual songs for a few days....you couldn't even use it for purchases or wireless syncing. And of course the Zune wasn't compatible with the 800lb gorilla that was iTunes monopoly on legal music downloads.

So very few of them sold. Prices were dropped and incentives were piled on generously. I saw players on Woot! for only $129...then two weeks later for only $99 (the people who bought them for $30 more a couple of weeks earlier understandably went ape-shit). First year sales were abysmal. Could it get worse? Yes. Microsoft last week announced that Zune sales fell 54% year over year for Q4. Yes that forth quarter...the one with the holiday buying season in it.

Then on New Years Eve, all the loyal Microsoft fans and earlier adoptors who bought the original players and dutifully updated their firmware got a belated Christmas present: a brick. Or, rather Cinderella-like, their Zunes turned into bricks at midnight. Evidently, for most the situation wasn't permenant and reset when the batteries drained. But still....jeesh!

Wonder how many New Years Eve parties ended promptly at midnight because the Zunes pigtailed into the stereos passed out early?