I hope the Zune HD will be a hit
I’m excited about the Zune HD, I am very much. I know it will be a runaway hit…
if Microsoft doesn’t screw it up!
In my opinion the hardware itself is nigh perfect and superior to the iPod Touch; OLED screen, Nvidia TEGRA platform, play back of HD videos and a snappy UI.
Two years ago this would’ve meant strong competition for Apple, from a company with a huge advertising budget.
Now the only question store clerks will have to answer is: “Can I download apps with it?”
Apple changed the game and Microsoft with all its collective brainpower has a hard time keeping up. They effectively launched the second major mobile platform, while not having even the slightest idea how to keep alive the first one.
John Gruber nails it in this post:
Translation From PR-Speak to English of Zune Marketing Manager Brian Seitz’s Response to the Question of Whether the Zune Will ‘Open Up for Third-Party App Developers’ ★
Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz:
It’s hard to say right now. If you look around the company at other places where things like this are important, Windows Mobile rises to the top. They have devices which are always connected, which make applications like maps really cool and important.
On a sometimes-connected device, what people are using them for are games. So what we didn’t want to do was build two parallel app store experiences that didn’t work together.
Right now our product roadmaps didn’t line up perfectly for us to snap to what they’re doing or vice versa. That being said, we know people want things like this on their devices so we’re going to build them ourselves, they’re going to be super high-quality, and they’re going to be free.
Down the road if there’s a way we can work with Windows Mobile or another group inside the company that’s building an app store and take advantage of that, that’s something we’ll look into.
Translation:
No, because our mobile strategy is a convoluted mess.
Microsoft can’t out-Apple Apple, they should instead pull a Palm (Pre) and just start over with the Zune HD software and hardware (!).
It’s new, it’s shiny, it’s robust enough to handle more than just media playback
and — most importantly — it’s received as innovative, if only for the fact that it does not copy Apple’s iPhone OS.
I will be honest: I want one and I seriously consider buying a 32GB Zune HD when I get to NY in October.
It looks different it has better and nicer looking hardware and I don’t care for third party apps on it, simply because I already have an iPhone 3GS…
which is not something Microsoft should build upon, not if they want to prevail in this market.
