Now that the cats out of the bag with the Zune HD, one can’t help but wonder if this is still too little too late for the Zune. Does the addition of the Zune HD really change anything for the Zune and the related Zune marketplace?

Zune HD:

There’s certainly a lot to like with the player but we won’t focus our attention on that (you can read the press release for that information). Let’s focus on the things that are still lacking:

• Let’s face it. The Zune HD Is still playing catch-up with the iPod touch. The player adds multi-touch capabilities, has a built-in accelerometer, and has HD output. Joy.. but these are still features that the Apple iPod touch community have had for nearly two years now. Will an iPod user realistically switch to the Zune HD simply looking at this new feature set? Doubtful. Will this new feature set keep a current Zune user from switching to the iPod touch? Not clear.
• HD Radio is a very cool feature.. as long as you’re in a location that has HD Radio channels broadcasting. Go to the middle of the country and forget it. A radio is just a radio at the end of the day. The whole point of the media player is to bring YOUR content with you wherever you go.
• The player itself is sexier than the previous Zune iterations.. but it still looks a bit too industrial for our tastes – especially when compared against the iPod touch. iPod touch – smooth curves. Zune HD – some rounded corners but also some ugly screws in the back. Ugh..

Zune Marketplace:

If we’ve had one major complaint over the years, it’s the confusing mess that is known as the Microsoft Zune marketplace and the somewhat related Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Two marketplaces that share a common login and payment system.. but that’s really about it. For some stupid reason, they’ve been separate for all these years.

So now, Zune will feature prominently within the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.. great but um… does an Xbox 360 user care about the Zune brand? Probably not.. they simply care about purchasing and downloading videos and music. Without knowing the full details, what we need is a single unified store front for all of Microsoft multimedia content. We’ll find out more about this at E3 next year.. but to take a simple cue, just look at Apple and their iTunes store front. You can purchase a movie and have it synced to your iPod or to your Apple TV.. or have it playable on your PC. Can you do the same with content on Xbox LIVE Marketplace? Of course not. Of course this could all change next week as one media outlet announced that the video section of the Xbox LIVE Marketplace was being outright replaced with the Zune Video marketplace. If so – cool.. but what about the music? Why can’t I purchase and listen music on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace????

It’s all about simplicity for the user – Microsoft. Can you please do that much? Stop playing the “Let’s cooperate with the media conglomerate card” and start focusing in on the consumer at hand. Don’t make us wonder whether this movie will work on my Xbox 360 or on my Zune HD etc. Make it simple.. and make it work.

And while you’re at it – just remove that stupid Microsoft Point system will ya? It’s annoyed everyone for years now.. we accept it because we have no other choice to do so but it’s silly.

It’s all about the Apps..

The Zune HD doesn’t change one important thing about the Zune. It’s basically a portable media player and nothing else. Sure current iterations let you play some games and the new Zune HD will have a built-in web browser.. but that’s really about it.

Look at what Apple has successfully forged with the iPod touch/iPhone. It’s built an incredibly large developer community with some developers going from rags to riches over silly applications. It’s a shame that Microsoft with its rich developer history hasn’t yet fully realized this yet. Sure it’s starting to roll out a Mobile App marketplace for Windows Mobile… but that surely will not extend to the Zune anytime soon (if ever). Until we have a rich application community, the Zune will never be able to compete in this arena.

A user buys an iPod touch and the whole experience is only just beginning simply because they can now purchase thousands of app that extend and enrich their media player. What do we have on the Zune? Music.. videos.. photos.. a browser… oh yeah.. HD radio.

Pricing

I’ve never really been critical of the Zune pricing.. but if the Zune is going to succeed in any way, it needs to be competitively priced against the iPod touch – aka it needs to be cheaper. Microsoft has the money, and they can certainly make people turn their heads simply by pricing the Zune HD cheaper than a comparable iPod touch. And let’s face it – it SHOULD be cheaper if only because the feature set is lower than the iPod touch.  You want a game changing product Microsoft? Under-price the competition.

Paved with the best of intentions…

It’s been a brave road for the Zune team.. but I can’t help but feel that it’s road that will lead them to nowhere. Microsoft lacks the unifying vision in the digital marketplace that Apple has and it certainly doesn’t look like anything is going to change soon. The mere fact that there needs to be a Zune “brand” within the Xbox LIVE marketplace says it all. You’ve got brands and groups competing with each other within Microsoft. You have duplicate software applications on the same PC (Zune software vs. Windows Media Player) that practically do the same thing – except one talks to the Zune and one doesn’t… yet is better integrated with the rest of Microsoft’s digital home technologies (Windows Media Player/Center).

Take a step back and unify your vision Microsoft. It might take some time but it will be well worth it don’t you think? Our simple recommendations:

• One marketplace for content
• One software for managing content
• Content that plays – at least on all Microsoft devices (and PCs)
• One unifying application community – develop for Windows Mobile gets you on Zune etc
• Unify the front end on mobile devices will ya? Make the Zune UI the single user interface for all Microsoft branded devices – from phones to players to whatever.
• Look at Apple for guidance

Please rethink your Zune strategy Microsoft. We’ve stuck by you all these years.. and really.. nothing has changed. The Zune is still playing catch up.. and it’s still a confusing mess out there for the average consumer. It shouldn’t have to be.

Technorati Tags: Zune

I’ve been thinking about how we could turn the Zune Social idea into something a bit more concrete for all of us Zune users out there. Zune Social in itself is a wonderful idea in that, it allows users to see what their online friends are listening to on their Zune players. The biggest problem of course is… most of us don’t have enough friends with Zunes! It’s just darn hard to meet people with this wonderful media player.

So what can do to solve this?

I say.. let’s throw a party!! (A Zune User Party (ZUP)?) A real party that is.. not a virtual party of sorts.. but a real party in real cities around the country. We could start small.. start in one city and see what the interest is like. If it catches on, we can assign people in every major city to be responsible for administrating and holding their own party of sorts..

Think of this as.. a Zune owners party.. a way for people to get together and meet other fellow Zune owners. We could certainly add a spin to this by requiring Zune owners to bring their Zune along. In fact, if you bring a Zune to the party, you’d get into the party for free. If you don’t bring a Zune, you’d have to pay a cover charge.

Another reason to bring the Zune? Share songs with other folks at the party! Sharing songs was a pretty nifty idea to begin with but the truth is.. the next Zune owner is about 2-5 miles away from my office!!! What we need is a central location for people to mingle AND share. Heck, we could have people print out their respective Zune Cards too!

So.. what do you think folks? Since I live in Los Angeles, I’m thinking about starting up a Zune party here. If you living in Los Angeles AND you own a Zune, let me know if you’d be interested in attending. Just comment here. If we get enough interest, we could be the first to throw a Zune users party.. Heck, if we get a lot of interest maybe we can get Microsoft to help us out!!!

Technorati Tags: Zune Users, Zune Party, Los Angeles

Things have been somewhat slow over the last few months here at ZuneSphere - I apologize for that. I’ve just been bogged down with a good deal of work as well as other side projects. Of course, I also man Krunker.com so that takes up a good deal of my time. However, I’ll definitely keep things updated as much as possible here. If there are any topics you’d like me to look into, please let me know. In the meantime, I’m going to do a little catching up with Zune related stuff. Thanks for dropping by!

No Tags

Here’s a little reminder that ZuneSphere does in fact have a forums section. We created it a few months ago so feel free to use it to communicate with other Zune owners out there. Post questions, thoughts, comments - whatever your heart desires at:

http://www.zunesphere.com/forums/

No Tags

Yes.. ZuneSphere.com FINALLY has some forums. I know.. it’s taken me some time to get forums integrated into the website but I finally got around to doing so. The hardest part was finding a good forums package that integrated well with WordPress (which is the engine that powers ZuneSphere.com). I ultimately decided to go with bbPress since it was developed by the same guys who made WordPress. Hard to go wrong there eh?

I haven’t really customized the look and feel of the forums so you’ll see the standard forums UI from bbPress. I’ll probably get around to it within a week or two. However, having a forums package up really allows all of you to start sharing information with one another right here on ZuneSphere. I hope all of you find this useful!!

To play with the forums, you’ll need a user account so make sure to register with ZuneSphere here.

http://www.zunesphere.com/forums/

Enjoy!

ZuneSphere team

Technorati Tags: ZuneSphere forums, Forums,

Yes.. I’m a few days late but nevertheless, I wanted to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. I hope all of you had a great (and safe) time off celebrating the coming of the new year. Here’s to a wonderful 2008!

Technorati Tags: Happy New Year, 2008

Hey folks - hope all of you are doing well. I know it’s been awhile since I last posted over here at ZuneSphere. I took a few months off to myself as I was taking care of stuff in my personal life.. but things are starting to settle down now and I’m trying to get myself back into the swing of things here at ZuneSphere. A lot’s been going on in the Zune world as most of you already know. There’s a new Zune media player coming out in less than a week and a bunch of changes for current Zune owners in store on November 13th. More on that in a separate posting. In any event, I’m back and stay tuned for additional coverage of the Zune in the days to come!

No Tags

As you’ve probably seen, I’ve been a bit MIA recently. If you’re a reader of Krunker.com, then you’ll know that I just recently moved to a new apartment in the L.A. area. The move and the Internet issues I’ve had since have really bogged down my work load with regards to Krunker and ZuneSphere. On top of that, I recently helped launch a new website called Kontrib.com (which I encourage all of you to check out) so that’s taken a considerable amount of time to help promote and work on etc.

Stay tuned though. I’ve got a ton of interesting stuff coming down the pipe.. and yes my Zune review will finally come. I know.. I’m late… super late. How lame huh?

No Tags

We’d like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! Celebrate the coming new year with friends, family, and loved ones! Most of all - have fun but be safe!!

As for us - we’ll be partying the night away somewhere in Beverly Hills tonight. Finally - thank you to all of you for making 2006 a wonderful start to ZuneSphere!. I wish you all the best for the coming new year!!

ZuneSphere staff

No Tags

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve changed the look of ZuneShere.com today - just to make things more in line with Krunker.com (our sister site dedicated to Gadgets and Technology). I hope you enjoy the new look.. yes it has a bit more in ad content (need to make money to pay the bills!) but hopefully it looks a bit more like an online magazine now! Stay tuned for a fun 2007. We’ve got some cool reviews lined up and I hope to find additional help to carry us forward into the new year. Thanks for reading our site when you can!

ZuneSphere Team

No Tags