Posted on 11/19/2006 12:25:48 AM PST by Swordmaker
Zune launched this week and, as predicted, it easily jumped to the number one spot in one of the most critical market metrics. How can this happen? How can a company known for practices that should dominate this metric fall so far behind its Redmond rival?
Sometimes it’s about focus and commitment and a never ending desire to maximize critical metrics like third party studies. Sometimes it about executive integrity and the ability to present a product in the most favorable light in the face of all information to the contrary to overcome all objections in getting a product to market that can get a win in this way. And sometimes it is about being so focused on what executive management wants to see that everything else is blocked out.
Zune Wins iPod Loses
Zune generated more negative press during its launch than any iPod, including the first crippled Shuffle, has ever done. It got so bad earlier this week that folks are getting excited about the fact that it wouldn’t even work with Vista right now even though Vista is only in limited corporate release to customers who would avoid anything like Zune (or iTunes) like the plague.
If reports are correct Zune also has more unsold inventory sitting in stores than Apple has ever had; customers evidently didn’t understand that “Brown” was cool. I’m guessing they didn’t see the survey saying that Brown was the hot new color.
Zune goes down in history as being the latest in a string of products from Microsoft that fail to meet market expectations, suggesting a competence in failure that is unmatched in the technology segment. Recall Mira the wireless display, or WebTV, or the Microsoft Phone, the Microsoft USB Speakers, and their Bluetooth Keyboards and Mice. Some did so poorly they are the stuff of legend and Apple simply can’t seem to compete but they could learn to.
How Apple Could Learn to Succeed at Failure
To have this kind of success at failure you have to work at it, you can’t just walk in and screw up to this level it takes concerted effort.
Rule 1: Avoid what you don’t want to do. For Zune Microsoft did a really nice job on the software, channel, and revenue model. They didn’t want to really focus on the hardware and this created a situation where the product could get funded (looked really good on paper) but actually had no chance to be successful in a market that was hardware focused.
Rule 2: Do CYA analysis. Executives like to see numbers and generally won’t fund a project that looks like it will fail so your strategy has to include studies that support the possibility of success. This is actually easier than you think because most executives have not studied this area and don’t know the questions to ask. Some nice bar and pie charts typically do the trick and you can always do the “emperor has no clothes” thing and suggest that their smart peers understand the study implying that only stupid people would question it.
Rule 3: Play the Demographic card. Executives in most firms don’t understand kids, hell kids don’t often understand kids, and simply saying that kids do stupid things (like wearing their pants below their butts) means that they will also buy stupid things. Adults seem to connect disconnected things to each other easily so draw parallels between an unattractive products to unattractive dressing behavior.
Rule 4: Don’t Listen. For most of the products listed, there were large numbers of people who said, early on, that they wouldn’t work, were unfinished, or otherwise unappealing to the current market. In a way they are just validating your success at failing so why listen to them? Use their comments as private validation that your strategy to fail spectacularly is on schedule and well down its chosen path.
Where Apple Gets it Wrong
For some reason Steve Jobs and his team simply doesn’t get this. They tend to block marginal products and spend whatever time is necessary to create music players that people want to buy in large numbers. There are signs they are learning though. The first Shuffle, the ROKR, their handling of the RSS problem. These are things that indicate what may be a growing trend to eventually dominate Microsoft in their quest to create spectacular products that go down in the record books as legendary disasters.
Apple isn’t there yet but if they work at it really hard I think they can find a way, some day, to release a product with the same success as Zune. I just hope I’m not around to see it.
Why can't they both suck?
I really REALLY hate iTunes. I hate how the iTunes music store prevents competition (you can't put music from most other online music stores on your iPod). $.99 a song is a giant rip off. I also thing the way music is organized in Windows Media Player is far superior. I don't understand why that isn't what Zune is using as it's player. Really, the only thing I like about iTunes are podcasts. The only difference between Apple and Microsoft is that one has more money.
I also really hate the click wheel on the iPod. I refuse to believe that there isn't a faster way to scroll through your songs. Once my current iPod bites the dust, I'm going with Creative despite the fact that I'm going to have to convert all my songs from ACC format (another thing I hate about iTunes incidentally).
Give Me iPod of Give Me Death!
Take My iPod from My Cold Dead Hand.
Amen! I don't want no stinkin' FM radio I want my AM talk stations for a diversion.
just now for the 'best selling' black Zune-
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75 in Electronics (See Top Sellers in Electronics)
Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Brown)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #499 in Electronics (See Top Sellers in Electronics)
Sinking like a zune.
hmmmm.... that might catch on.
Flushed down the e-toilet like a brown zune...
Another good zinger... I'm getting good at this...
Hilarious. Of course Steve Jobs has had similar presentation problems... just fewer of them.
Yes, but good ole' Steve's were not so...common. The blue screen of death, to the day, plagues Microsoft environment.
Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (White)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #525 in Electronics (See Top Sellers in Electronics)
Creative beats both of them.
Say NO! to DRM in your electronics.
At what rank does a product drop out of the "Top Sellers in Electronics" category and join the "Bottom Failures of Electronics" category?
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/how-to-bypass-the-zunes-wifi-sharing-drm-217042.php
How To Bypass The Zune's WiFi Sharing DRM
We knew it would be done sooner or later, and now that we have the mod to use your Zune as a portable hard drive, a method to bypass the Zune's WiFi sharing DRM is finally here.
First, you need to enable hard drive mode using the instructions we posted before. Then, rename whatever files—MP3s, movies, programs—to have the extension ".jpg" in order to fool the Zune into thinking it's an image. This hack works because Zune doesn't apply DRM to images!
Then what?
Now, take your Zune and send the folder containing these files to your buddy along with a real photo. If you only send a fake photo, an error is thrown. The last step is to have your friend sync the Zune with their computer, open the "containing folder" where the files were downloaded, and rename the files back to their correct extension.
We tried doing this before with just the Zune software, without the storage hack, and Zune threw an error because it resizes the images down in order to conserve space, and our file wasn't a real image.
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