Posted on 11/26/2006 5:11:08 PM PST by quidnunc
Yes, Microsoft's new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.
"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.
The setup process stands among the very worst experiences I've ever had with digital music players. The installer app failed, and an hour into the ordeal, I found myself asking my office goldfish, "Has it really come to this? Am I really about to manually create and install a .dll file?"
But there it was, right on the Zune's tech support page. Is this really what parents want to be doing at 4 a.m. on Christmas morning?
That might not be Zune's fault. After about a year of operation, it's almost as if a Windows machine develops some sort of antibodies that prevent it from recognizing new hardware. But what's Microsoft's excuse for everything else?
Only the Zune software can sync music, video and pictures onto the device; Zune is incompatible with Windows Media Player, the familiar hub of the Windows desktop media experience.
The Zune app doesn't even have as many features as WMP. And why (for the love of God) doesn't it support podcasts? That's pure insanity.
It's incompatible with Microsoft's own PlaysForSure standard, too.
You'll have to buy all-new content from the new Zune Marketplace.
Oh, and the Zune Marketplace doesn't even take real money, proving that on the Zune Planet there's no operation so simple that it can't be turned into a confusing ordeal. The Marketplace only accepts Zune Points, with an individual track typically costing the equivalent of the iTunes-standard 99 cents.
By forcing users to buy blocks of Zune Points (with a $5 minimum), the Marketplace only has to pay one credit-card processing fee.
Zune Points will also make it easier for the Zune Marketplace to institute variable pricing. The music industry wants it desperately. The industry has been pressuring Apple to abandon its flat 99 cent pricing and start charging more for "hot" tracks.
-snip-
As a Zen MicroPhoto user, I like the player. However, the software is not one of the highlights.
It's workable for us computer types though.
That's kind of like saying that the car drives great once you get it started (after six hours of failed attempts each time).
If you can't interface your computer with the player, you can't get your music into it -- in which case, what the hell is it good for?
Before trashing Microsoft you need to remember that Microsoft always launches a sub-par product into the marketplace and then drastically improves on it based on feedback from consumers and competitors. Remember Windows 95? Microsoft took note and improved on it with the much better Windows 98. Ditto for Xbox. I bet within a year or two this Zune product will be a must-have item for most people and will cut into Ipod's market.
Find and post a better review that doesn't come from a Microsoft funded Astroturf site.
Try this one from a certifiable PC enthusiast who wrote a rave review of the Zune before it was released...
You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression...
I'd rather have a Sony Erricson over the ipod or Zune neither one of those(music players) can take pictures OR call someone.
That's why a lot of people are griping about the Zune. The hardware is great, but the software--well, it's terrible. iTunes--despite its complications for neophyte users--works extremely closely with the iPod models in terms of copying to and organizing audio/video files on the player.
I played with one for a while. The interface is very nice, but I found myself sorely missing the click wheel when I needed to scroll.
Eeewwwww. It's way to complicated, information thrown all over the place. They're still thinking "complicated computer program" and not "consumer device." No wonder Creative isn't doing too well, when it markets software like that (I do, however, like many of Creative's other products).
That's Apple's vertical integration, and it excludes music stores from other companies. Microsoft has its own vertical integration, but in doing so Microsoft excluded its own music store format, its current users, and its partners.
The basic philosophy is also a problem: The Zune exists for two reasons: to get Microsoft into the market and to make the RIAA money. Notice that "giving the consumer what he wants" isn't in the picture.
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