“I wonder who bought the Zune?”
Don’t laugh. Look at Microsoft’s history. When they want dominance in a market, they’re very very patient. NT 3.51 was slaughtered by Netware, but NT 4 led to domination that MS has never relinquished. Internet Explorer 1 and 2 were jokes, largely ignored. But by IE 3, MS was a threat in the browser market. By IE 5, they dominated it utterly. MS SQL server, once a joke in corporate IT departments, now dominates small and midsized businesses, and is now encroaching on Oracle’s territory. Wordperfect was once the standard, when Word was an also-ran. And Exchange server utterly dominates corporate email departments.
What Micrsoft wants, Microsoft gets. And they’re both flush with cash, and patient enough to make it happen.
MS has already taken the first step in paving the way for Zune’s dominance. Windows Media is now the dominant delivery codec for streaming audio and video on the web (except for movie trailers, where Quicktime still dominates).
Microsoft is a superpower financially, but fights like a third world insurgent in emerging markets (or markets that it does not yet dominate, like MP3 players).
This is not admiration on my part, simply a statement of facts. I use a wide variety of operating systems, and my favorite is Apple’s OS X. After I bought a Mac, I decided that I wouldn’t be buying Vista for my own personal use.
I would only add that money does not make companies --- it's talent. The dominance is acquired because there are many talented people at MS, and those people are given freedom to act. All of those victories were fought for and attained on merit. (This does now apply to the earliest history, when Gates famously told IBM that MS is not interested in operating systems, and IBM should talk to DRI instead.)
I understand what you are saying, it just seems like MS has done nothing but misstep lately though. First the Zune and then the Vista debacle and now there is something about every X-Box 360 having a flaw.
Oh, and then there’s that patent they did for a new way to target ads by sniffing around people’s hard drives.
There was a time when IBM looked like the indestructible giant too. I wouldn’t say MS can’t recover but it seems everywhere MS steps lately is a big, deep cow pie welcoming their foot. Which, I guess if their foot was severely frost bitten that might be a good thing, but it’s the middle of July.
I just bought a Creative Zen. It’s kind of a nifty little device and it’s not an over-priced Apple and it’s not a big, bulky, over-priced Zune either, so it’s got those two things going for it.
Don’t forget the XBox. They’ve taken billions of dollars of loss over the years to get themselves in the console market. Now the 360 is doing well, although the hardware is apparently crap (strange, because MS’s hardware has always been pretty solid).
You sound like a MS marketing guy/gal to me. The dominant delivery codec for streaming audio and video is not either Windows media or Quicktime, it is Adobe's Flash player.