While I’m no marketing expert, your argument for the Zune doesn’t make any sense to me (or anyone else) what so ever. Is it equivelant to say, “Buy this Yugo. Sure it costs the same as the that Cadillac convertible over there, but this Yugo has a rear defroster on the back winshield to keep your hands warm when you push it. Plus the Yugo is cool because it doesn’t sell. And we hate Cadillac and want their business.” And we’re supposed to buy that? And then all the super hype Microsoft sponsored at the Zune’s launch meant that they really didn’t want to sell any Zunes yet? Plus, I read that Business Week article. It’s odd that this Allard ass uses a G5. I wonder what MP3 he uses, since it can’t be a Zune since it doesn’t operate on Macs.

I can’t wait to hear in the next few months how revolutionary the Microsoft Vista is. And wow, it’s got a cool calendar application and gadgets. Where do they ever think this stuff up? Might have some connection to that place that makes that massively successful MP3 player that sold one too many to be cool.

The obvious reason to compare the first generation Zune to the “zillionth generation iPod” is because they’re in the same market.

According to your logic concerning “cool”, I’ll expect that if the Zune is taking noticeable marketshare away from the iPod by next Christmas, and Bill and Steve have spent “whatever it takes” to make the Zune ubiquitious, then it will no longer be cool either, and you will have moved onto something else. Right?

Ah, the old, “it’s not about how Zune is doing now, it’s how it will do in the future” line. Does that mean we agree at least agree that it looks like Zune is failing in the market place *right now* then? I actually think you make a fair point about Zune only being on the market for only 11 days. Let’s see how it does during the next couple of months, over the holiday season.

I can’t agree with you that “Zune is an excellent first step” for Microsoft. It seems to me that bad decisions abound when it comes to Zune: terrible design (clunky, bulky, fake scroll wheel, brown); poorly implemented software (have you seen all the reports about the problems people have been having with the software?); no unique selling points. Such poor execution was totally unnecessary - this is hardly cutting-edge stuff.

As for iPods being cool… well, I’m not sure they are, particularly. iPods are, however, stylish and well-designed; and people like to buy things that are stylish and well-designed.

I’d like you (or anyone, for that matter) to explain how iPod is still “cool”, even though there are 60 or 70 million of them out there?

By definition, if something is ubiquitous, it can’t, simultaneously, be so “cool” that it only belongs in the world of Soho’ers and hipsters: the demographic that normally laughs at the mainstream, and does everything in their power to shun the products that they’ve adopted. It’s funny how, for some strange reason, iPod seems to be the exception to this general rule.

Zune is an excellent first step for Microsoft. And if there weren’t so many members of the AAPL religion who were also bloggers and mainstream journalists, consumers would clearly be more amenable to making Zune a “massive success in the marketplace” — even at this earliest of stages.

By next Christmas, Zune will be taking a serious bite out of apple’s cake; if for no other reason, that the fact that Bill and Steve won’t settle for anything less, and will spend whatever it takes to ensure Zune’s own ubiquitousness.

Gene from ZuneChannel.com