Microsoft’s new Zune media player, a market challenger to Apple’s iPod and iTunes hegemony, has a subtle message printed in tiny letters on the back of the case. It says, “Hello from Seattle.”
Seattle Time’s columnist Brier Dudley thinks the message is mostly for Steve Jobs who finally has some serious competition.
The Zune player syncs up wirelessly with other Zunes so if you’re in a coffee shop, say a Starbuck’s for instance, you can exchange favorite photos, song or playlists wirelessly with other Zune users. The copyright infringement is only temporary. Friends can only listen to the transferred songs three times and decide whether to buy them from the Zune store before they “self-destruct.” You can also disable the sharing feature to avoid unwanted attempts to force feed you music and lyrics with your macchiato.
Back to the Seattle mystique, Dudley’s supposition is that while iPod has been around for awhile, the Zune is trendy and, like so many Seattle trends, can make a play to become the next cool thing.
The question will turn on whether a more entrenched player like iPod (which, by the way, just got a dose of fresh movies and new game playability) will satisy consumers needs over the nouveau coolness of Microsoft’s Zune. And, of course, whether Zune’s user experience is just as intuitive. That last piece of the puzzle is something Microsoft has not been able to use to outsmart Apple in the past.
RSS
