In the world of music players, there really is no other option than an iPod. Now, before everyone gets upset at me, let’s take a look at it realistically.
U.S. stand alone digital music player market in the second quarter, 2006.
Company Percent market share Apple 75.6 percent SanDisk 9.7 percent Creative 4.3 percent Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 2.5 percent Sony Electronics Inc. 1.9 percent Source: The NPD Group
This market is heavily dominated by Apple. It’s widely known that Creative and Sansa have amazing hardware products, but there is one missing key: Software. From the reviews I have read, the Zune market place not only fails to impress, it’s downright ridiculous.
Points? We don’t need no stinkin’ Points!
So, you just got to work, your favorite Milli Vanilli song blaring on the radio and now you want to buy it! Well, here is how it breaks down:
- $5 = 400 points
- $15 = 1200 points
- $25 = 2000 points
- $50 = 4000 points
In here lies the problem. A song doesn’t cost $0.99, as a matter of fact, you have to calculate the cost of the song with this ridiculous algorithm:
If $5 = 400 points, then $1 = 80 points or .8 points per cent. so one point costs 1.25 cents.
If one song costs 79 points, then one song costs 98.75 cents, pretty much the same $0.99 as iTunes, except you can’t buy a la carte, you have to spend $5 and leave $4.0125 sitting in Microsoft’s obviously very need bank account collecting interest.
When you are ready to buy a whole album are you prepared to get out your calculator and figure out how much it costs?
I truly believe the success of the iPod is only part due to the player itself. If I had no iPod I would still use iTunes to manage my music, it’s just that good. You bundle in how I add my shopping info once, and click songs away at the tune of $0.99 real (not Martian) dollars each, and I have a simple, elegant, end to end solution that anyone can figure out.
If your having a hard time deciding which player to buy your family for Christmas this year, I would be hard pressed to put my money in a Zune. Microsoft has the money to make it work, and from what I hear, the player is spectacular, but you can’t argue the facts:
- The Zune Marketplace is confusing and do you really want TWO Microsoft media players on your computer? Yes, you have another application to manage your music.
- The Wireless is an intoxicating notion, but once you realize that you can’t really KEEP anything someone sends you without buying it, the luster is lost.
- You can’t just buy one song!
- No Podcast and extremely limited video support at launch.
- Brown? Really now.
JB
Link to Microsoft takes aim at Apple with Zune – Tech News & Reviews – MSNBC.com
In a related story:
Air France, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, KLM and UAL Corp.’s United Airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections, which power and charge iPods during flight and allow the video content on the devices to be viewed on seat-back displays, Apple said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15713453/
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