Top Five Reasons Why Zune Will Fail
By now, you’ve probably heard all about Microsoft new MP3 player - Zune. You can see it discussed in some detail by Zune’s product manager on the Scoble Show;and Scoble discusses Zune versus the iPod on his blog.
My view on Zune? I think it’s going to fail. Here’s my top five reasons why - in reverse order.
5. Microsoft can’t clearly articulate what Zune is. What is Zune? I’m certain most people won’t understand Microsoft’s description - “It’s actually not a device. It’s an entrant into the new connected entertainment market for creating new shared and social experiences based around content”. There you have it! According to Microsoft, Zune isn’t a device. Except, of course, that it is! Everyone outside of Microsoft knows what a Zune is - it’s an MP3 player!
4. MS has its head in the sand in regard of its competition. They don’t really acknowledge the market leading product in this category - the iPod. To hear Zune’s product manager talk, it’s almost as if the iPod doesn’t exist or isn’t relevant. Rather than say, “let’s look at the iPod and make Zune better”, they seem to have said, “iPod is better than any MP3 player we can make. So, let’s pretend Zune isn’t an MP3 player. Then it won’t have to compete with the iPod”.
3. It’s brown. Yes, they make a white one. And a black one. But the brown one is the one they’re pushing. Of all the colours to choose for an MP3 player, they picked brown. There’s a reason no-one has made a brown MP3 player before. It’s because it looks like shit… literally.
2. The scroll wheel that isn’t a scroll wheel. If you design your MP3 player so that it looks like it has a scroll wheel (like on the iPod), it better damn-well have a scroll wheel.! Zune’s scroll wheel, isn’t a wheel at all. It’s a 4-way button. However, the market has already spoken on this subject. 80% of people prefer a scroll wheel. It’s no good Microsoft pretending that Zune’s 4-way button is better than a scroll wheel. People won’t believe it.
1. Zune has no unique selling points (USPs). It’s basic business. No-one has any reason to buy your product if it doesn’t have something unique about it; something unique that makes it better than the market leading products in your category. I think Microsoft knows Zune doesn’t have any USPs - that’s why it struggles to say what Zune is (see points 4 and 5 above). People in Microsoft really seem unable to accurately appraise their own product; an accurate appraisal would be “Zune looks like an iPod, only not as good.”
So there we have it - Zune is a clunky MP3 player doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as an iPod and has a fake scroll wheel. Why would huge numbers of people buy that? I can’t think of a single reason why they would….
Chris wrote:
Very good analysis. I really liked your point about the fake scroll wheel. It serves no function other than to try to fool people who’ve never laid hands on (or read about) an iPod scroll wheel. It is classic MS: instead of creating something original, just slap on a 4-way button in the shape of a circle, and hope some clueless schmuck doesn’t know the difference.
Here’s an interesting little factoid that Walter Mossberg reveals in his Wall Street Journal review: nowhere on the device will you see the name Microsoft. Are they too ashamed to put their own name on the Zune? Or is it an admission that doing so would make the Zune an even harder sell? Whatever the reason, the omission in itself speaks volumes.
Posted 13 Nov 2006 at 5:49 pm ¶
Marc Dencker wrote:
sorry to comment so late but I just started to read your blog as a result of the discussion we seem to have on the Zune’s succes.
Why is the Zune brown? Because it is the new fashion color. Go ask your wife/girlfriend
see my post in september:
http://marcd.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!611216EE7EB3297A!911.entry
Posted 25 Nov 2006 at 3:29 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Marc… so girls and women are buying lots of brown Zunes then? I’m not sure they are. It’s a music player - not an item of clothing, a pair of shoes, a bag or a belt. I’m just not sure the same rules apply.
And, if MS were serious about targeting girls/women with Zune, they should probably have dumped the hard-drive in favour of a flash storage. Why? Because, I suspect that, on the whole, girls/women prefer smaller players e.g. prefer iPod nanos to the larger hard-drive-based iPods.
Posted 25 Nov 2006 at 10:58 pm ¶
Al wrote:
That brown always reminds me of one of Steve Jobs quotes he’s been know to use when confronting an employee about some project failings–”You baked a great cake. But unfortunately, you used dog shit for frosting.” And there it is, graphically for the world to see.
Posted 27 Nov 2006 at 5:33 am ¶
LS wrote:
I will buy a Zune. It has at least one USP: it has a bigger brighter screen. Cool? I think the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like the iPod, but I also like Zune. Color? White is like milk, like an egg, like many things. Brown is like many other things: brown hair, brown eyes. brown autumn leaves, …
I don’t care it isn’t a scroll wheel, many other respectable MP3 players don’t have it either. If I like music and show some photos to my friends at a party or family dinner, I would easily prefer a bigger screen. The quality of the sound is similar, the size is similar (I take the small difference for the bigger screen). Both play MP3, videos and show pictures.
Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 5:52 am ¶
simon wrote:
LS - you’re right that the screen is important to people who want to look at pictures or watch video. Not just screen *size*, but also screen *resolution* is important.
I’m hoping that someone will make a great, sleek music player, that has a screen with a higher resolution that 320×240 at some point soon… at that point, watching movies on these devices will really start to take off…
Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 9:31 am ¶
Snakey J wrote:
I’m searching the web for objective opions on Zune v Ipod for a Christmas gift for someone.
This has to be the dumbest sites I’ve come across. I’m starting to think that Ipod fanboys feel threatened by the Zune so they are resorting to knee-jerk opions and misinformation to make themselve feel better about carrying around their fashion accessory.
Why rip on the Zune for coming in brown? The Ipod comes in some pretty sexy colours like light blue, pink, and lime green. Some people like those colours even if you don’t.
Let me sum up this little blog post for everyone. The Zune sucks becuase it’s made by Microsoft and futhermore the Zune isn’t an Ipod so ofcourse it sucks.
Posted 15 Dec 2006 at 6:49 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Snakey - thank you for your (albeit inaccurate) summary of my blog post! The Zune sucks for the reasons given in the post. Not for the reasons you suggest. I’m afraid you’re very much mistaken if you think I’m an iPod fanboy. The truth is: this post predicted that Zune would do badly in terms of sales, ahead of it going on the market. I have since been proved 100% correct.
And, in fact, the sales figures for the *brown* Zune have been a complete disaster. No Zunes are selling in any kind of reasonable volume; but the brown Zune and white Zune are hardly selling at all. Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t really intend to sell many MP3 players in the next decade - they’re taking a long-term view of this market.
So, the reason for me “ripping on the brown Zune” was because it showed a complete lack of understanding of good taste in design. Believe it or, I would actually have liked Zune to be a great product. Competition is good for consumers. I just don’t think Zune is even close to being a good first attempt at an MP3 player. And the public agrees with me - because people just aren’t buying Zunes.
But anyway, please, be my guest: buy a brown Zune as a Christmas gift for someone. I’m sure whoever the lucky recipient is will be totally delighted with it.
Posted 15 Dec 2006 at 7:16 pm ¶