Philoking.com

Today I officially announced this at work, and I am very excited to share it with all of you. As of next week I will no longer be working in the SharePoint and Office Business Intelligence space. I’ll be joining the team at Microsoft that makes wonderful products for Apple platforms.

Those of you that know me well will probably find this to be of little surprise, but it’s a very welcome change and something I am very excited about.

I can’t quite say what I’ll be working on yet, but for the Mac faithful readers of my blog, stay tuned and I’ll divulge more as it’s appropriate to do so.

If you read my blog, you probably already know I am a big fan of Microsoft’s Zune. As disheartened as I am when people haven’t heard about it, I get even more frustrated when people don’t get it, and give Zune and the ZunePass subscription a bad rap without even understanding it.

I am going to try another way to look at it, that maybe will make you understand it a little better, and see the benefits of the service.

Your Own Private Idaho

Not really Idaho, imagine if you had your own radio station. One that only played music that you like. The soundtrack to your life if you will. Today I have been playing with the Smart DJ feature in the 4.0 version of the Zune software.

Now the Genius feature in iTunes grabs what it thinks are songs you will like to listen together from your library, and organizes them for you in little playlists, that’s nice and all. The problem is you won’t hear anything that’s not in your library. Zune’s Smart DJ leverages your library to help understand who you are and what you like, but then it grabs music from your library AND the entire ZunePass catalog. Today alone I have found five or six must have CDs. It has you pick just four artists you like right off the bat. I chose Steve Vai, Megadeth, Dream Theater and Foo Fighters. I clicked the Smart DJ on Steve Vai, and it found him and his obvious contemporaries in my library, but the music it pulled in from ZunePass was incredible. If you are a guitar music guy, download some Tak Matsumoto, trust me!

A New Way To See

So the problem you will probably throw back at me is the ZunePass subscription. $14.99 a month seems to get in the way for a lot of people. Let me first make one point extremely clear, this is a point I see misunderstood more often than not:

YOU DON’T HAVE TO USE ZUNEPASS TO USE A ZUNE! It will operate like an iPod/iTunes with purely purchased unprotected MP3s, as well as your own songs and rip your CDs, just like you would expect.

That being said, why the heck wouldn’t you! Think about this:

• It costs about as much as buying one CD per month.
• It’s two dollars cheaper than the premium XM Radio subscription.
• It’s the same price as downloading 15 songs per month on iTunes.
• It’s way cheaper than a cup of coffee a day for you Sally Struthers types.
• It’s less than 50 cents a day man, how cheap are you, really?

The Value

I am not always sure what people think ZunePass entails, but imagine going to iTunes, and being able to download whatever you want, whenever you want. Of course there are a few artists you can’t *ahem, Metallica* but most of them are there and not only do you get to listen to any of that stuff, you get to download 10 songs per month you can keep as clean clear MP3s.

If you were to compare it to XM or Sirius, other subscription based services, the benefit is clear if you like music. You can keep the music that you download on up to three Zune devices AND three computers AND on the web. For me that means I can listen to it when I am at home on my Media Center PC (as well as through my extender on any Xbox 360 in the house as one single device), I can listen to it on my laptop, I can listen to it on my work computer, then I can also have it on a Zune I keep in my car, a Zune I carry around, and my newly ordered Zune HD when it comes in. To top that off, I can listen to it on any computer I am at through the browser, both PC and Mac.

If you compare that to paying $17 a month to have access to a bunch of channels of music you might want to listen to on one device, that’s not much of an option at all is it?

The Devices

This article is meant to talk about the service and software, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Zunes are really very nice media players. Both Video and Audio, as well as FM Radio (HD Radio on the Zune HD) built in WiFi to sync your music without connecting to your computer as well as download new music from the device if you are in a hotspot. Let me tell you a story about that…

My wife, Andy and I were traveling about 6 months ago. We had gotten into listening to comedy albums, but ran out. We found a Burger King with WiFi, I connected up, I browsed the store, and I downloaded some new Comedy albums to the device while we ate. When we hit the road we had plenty more to listen to. That’s hard to beat eh?

It’s worth a shot

I am betting you can find yourself a very cheap 1st or 2nd gen Zune if you want to try this thing out and see if you like it. The real beauty is that Microsoft understands the nature of software, and updates even the old Zunes, that means your 1st generation Zune will have the same software features as my new 120GB 3rd Gen Zune.

If you are skeptical, sign up for 14 days of free ZunePass and see what all is out there to listen to, you’ll be amazed at the service, I am sure of it.

I guess money talks… BING!

The background, the top banner and the top right ad, woof

Yet another article today. The EU is saying that it’s going to take another approach. Instead of fines, or forcing Microsoft to ship without Internet Explorer, they are going to try to force Microsoft to include other browsers in Windows. This means that most likely Firefox and Opera would ship inside Windows.

The EU is Picking Winners?

Forget for a second that I work for Microsoft and let us just look at this pragmatically. I have talked about this a lot, and I know it’s getting old, but we are very close to a complete reversal of roles and the EU using Microsoft’s supposed monopoly position to decide which browsers do and do not succeed. The concept of product tying, is what the EU is upset about. Windows the platform gives Internet Explorer an unfair advantage in the marketplace. I’ll get off my “who cares and who said business is fair” soap box for a minute and ask a logical question. If the EU chooses which browser would be included, are they not tying themselves?

Does The Customer Get Screwed?

Contrary to popular belief, there are other browsers than Opera and Firefox. Are they going to force Windows to ship with 25 browsers? Is your desktop going to look like circa 1999 Dell with 40 shortcuts on the desktop to different browsers? Is Microsoft going to be required to support these browsers? If so are they going to be compensated for having to support a competitor’s products? I can’t imagine calling Microsoft for a problem, only to be told that I had to call Mozilla for my issue.

Care to know what your support options are for Firefox? You can post something to a bulletin board, you can browse their knowledge base (probably not much help is your browser isn’t working properly) or you can download an IRC client and go into a big chat room and try and find help. I am afraid that to the average user, that isn’t support.

If you want more support than that from Opera, you are going to have to sign up for Premium Support and pay for it. See, that’s the problem with free software, it’s usually extremely poorly supported. Now you are asking Microsoft to take a product from an organization that wants nothing more than to see them fail, with little to no support, and ship it with their product. WHAT!?

Who Really Wins Here?

This whole situation is rife with conflict of interest, my biggest question is this: If they pull this off, is Microsoft allowed to change the default landing page and search engine for those browsers? If not… I mean…why not just force Microsoft to write Google a check. Let’s make it a tidy 20 billion or so.

Think about it for a second, it’s very obvious. The only way that Firefox makes money, is that Google pays them a referral fee for every search initiated through the search box or default home page of Firefox as it ships. That is other than the obvious huge payment they get for making Google’s search engine the default landing page.

Now, last time I checked, Google had a ridiculous advantage on all of the other search engines when it comes to Market Share. In 2007, and it’s increased since then, Google had 65% and the closest competitor was Yahoo with a shade over 20%. Microsoft was about 8.5%, Ask.com had around 3.5% and everyone else made up the rest. That means every other search engine on the internet combined for 3%.

It’s no secret that Yahoo is crumbling from within, and with an already declining market share, is likely to fall out of the running completely unless someone intervenes. The only problem is that they think to highly of their value and seem determined to fall apart than take an offer that isn’t well above actual value.

That leaves Microsoft, struggling to stay in a business that built Google into a multi-billion dollar behemoth seemingly over night. Microsoft is making some moves, most recently with bing.com appearing as the rebranding of live.com, but it’s no secret that being the bundled browser and search engine in Windows is the only thing keeping them at a still declining 8.5%.

So where is the monopoly here? If being in Windows is such a huge advantage, why is Google absolutely dominating this industry?

If the EU succeeds in this change, they will be further cementing one monopoly while trying to thwart another in an industry that they clearly are not the leader in.

The graph above is the one the EU will have you look at. 66% in favor of Internet Explorer for Browser market share. But the numbers that source the revenue don’t back it up. The obvious math would prove that the end users are either savvy enough to, or tricked into switching the default search engine for the operating system 80% of the time!

Google is not beyond striking deals that subtly switch your browser search provider when you install one of dozens of third party applications. Yahoo has pulled the same dirty move. These days any number of applications from little apps to ones as large as Adobe Acrobat.

The point is that shipping with the operating system doesn’t ensure a victory by any means.

The Dodge Ball Analogy

Imagine if you were a kid again, playing dodge ball in PE class. Before the game started, the coach came by and pulled the biggest kid aside and said “You see all of the smaller kids? You aren’t allowed to try to hit those guys.” Then, that same coach goes to all of the smaller kids, gives them two balls each and says, “You see that big kid over there? Everyone aim at him.” Then, to make things extra fair, announces to the class, “Every hit on the big kid counts as two, and every hit on a small kid counts as one half.”

I know, it’s extreme isn’t it? Or is it? And what kind of message does it send? We are already at a place where everyone gets a trophy. Kids are taught that you can get a black belt in a couple years at the age of 10, and that if you want something, all you have to do is keep complaining until you get your way.

The Mythical Monopoly Gauge

The sad truth is in the name of competition, competition is dying. Companies like Apple are benefiting from the restrictions being placed on their competitors by using the same (or worse in many cases) tactics that are the cause for many of these lawsuits. Don’t believe me? iTunes, the only media player that you can really use if you have an iPod or iPhone, default installs QuickTime with iTunes. OS X ships with Safari by default. iTunes tries it’s best to install Safari on your PC over and over, you have to diligently reject it every time there is an update.

These practices would be absolute cause of lawsuit for Microsoft, several of them already have been. These restrictions stifle and suffocate innovation at Microsoft.

So what is the lesson we learn here? It almost seems to me like the lesson is “Don’t get too big.” If you are small enough to avoid a target, then you can lie and cheat like everyone else and it’s ok.

The title of the article that proves my point? “Is Google’s Chrome the New Internet Explorer?” The gist of the article? Microsoft thinks that bundling Chrome in Windows will give Google a search monopoly because of it’s speed and security.

The Battle for the Box

Let’s make one thing absolutely clear. Microsoft’s concern with the EU case concerning bundling IE has zero to do with Chrome, Firefox, Opera and the like. It should be called “The battle for the box.” Microsoft doesn’t want that little search box you see at the top right of your browser to fall into the hands of Google. Think about it, it’s THE reason that when you do use IE, Google really wants you to install their toolbar, not for the features, for the SEARCH BOX! Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft wants people using IE8. In a perfect world to them, the internet would run on Explorer and they wouldn’t have to worry about all these silly standards (note sarcasm).

The reality, however, is that Microsoft wants to make money, something that Google is very good at. They made all that money by selling ads in their search engine, you might have used it before. If you look at the monopoly numbers that have been used against Microsoft in recent years, you will see that they are quite similar to Google’s dominance in the search market.

Microsoft is David to Google’s Goliath

Microsoft is still trying to get into the search market. The Live Search product isn’t totally mature, but it’s getting better. Right now, the only thing really keeping them in the game is that Windows ships with Internet Explorer 8 and it’s set by default to the MSN.com homepage and the default search engine is Live Search. This, my friends, is the battle ground.

Forget which browser got you there, they money is in the search. Microsoft doesn’t make money when you use Internet Explorer, and they don’t lose money when you use Firefox or Chrome, at least not directly. They lose money when you use the search tools that are set up by default by those browsers.

I know that some of you might have a hard time seeing Microsoft as the underdog, but in the world of search, that is absolutely the case.

Think of it more bluntly. If the EU wins this case, it’s the rough equivalent of the EU forcing Microsoft to just hand money to Google, millions of dollars on a daily basis.

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

I know what you are thinking, and I hear what you have said in the past. “The customer needs choice.” The argument against Windows has been that the market share keeps other OSes like OS X and Linux beat down. Get ready boys, the same game is coming and it’s going to define where and how you search the internet. I use Google too, and I think it’s a great search engine, but it’s all but consumed every other search tool. Yahoo is on it’s last legs and Microsoft is not far behind them in market share. As much as they sing “Don’t be evil.” around the corporate campus’ campfires, Google has an eye on your personal information. The ads they sell are only as valuable as the information they can get about you before they serve them.

Look at this problem closely, and don’t take sides too quickly. Microsoft may have a bad rap over the OS Monopoly issues, but it’s also 100% responsible for building a platform that crossed oceans and united the world through the internet. If you think that you would have the technology at your fingertips without the ground that Windows 95 broke, you are sadly mistaken. Now there is a vast landscape in cyberspace, it will be these types of steps that hand the keys of the internet to Google.