Computerworld Editor Offers an iPod Killer’s How-To Treatise

Microsoft’s Zune has been touted as the biggest threat to the iPod since … well, nothing. But as Computerworld’s Mike Elgin pointed out in a roundup of problems reviewers have had with the new device: “Zune finally shipped, and everyone agrees: It’s nice but definitely no ‘iPod killer.’ But it could be. And should be.” Before getting to the latter point, however, he runs down what the reviewers have to say. “Users and reviewers are discovering that the Zune is a little too bulky and heavy,” Mr. Elgin wrote. “As Palm discovered long ago, a large device can feel smaller if the designers round off the edges. Microsoft ignores this lesson of gadget history, with its boxy, blocky design.” In addition, reviewers don’t appreciate “Zune’s fake click wheel,” and the Wi-Fi is currently a useless feature since it only connects to other Zunes, and there aren’t many of those on the street right now. Zune also works only with Windows XP, and it doesn’t even support Microsoft’s own PlaysForSure standard. It’s also incompatible with DivX, OGG, protected WMV, and WMA-DRM9. It plays movies, but you can’t buy any yet, and it doesn’t feature the same seamless podcasting integration offered by Apple. Mr. Elgin also links to Google searches that pull up problems with software installation and crashes of the Microsoft Marketplace application. In addition, he said, “the out-of-box experience is ruined by endless screens demanding personal information and Windows Live ID membership. And the whole Microsoft Points thing represents more needless harassment. Why can’t I buy a music player without being dragged into a Windows Live membership and forced to use Microsoft’s weird Monopoly money?” And even once the user gets the player running, Mr. Elgin said, “some features are too hard to find and not well-designed.” He pointed to difficulty getting to the equalizer while playing music, as well as the fact that the current track stops playing during a peer-to-peer music transfer. However, “all these problems can be corrected, and it’s reasonable to expect that Microsoft will quickly fix many of them,” he wrote. “Also, remember that Zune is a 1.0 release. Microsoft is in it for the long haul. It’s only a question of which flaws Microsoft will choose to fix, and how long it will take to fix them. This hefty list of problems shouldn’t motivate anyone to write off Zune as a loser. But correcting every single issue on this list wouldn’t turn the Zune into an ‘iPod killer.’ To do that, Microsoft needs a fundamental change of direction.” Building the Perfect iPod Killing Machine How? By making the Zune “more like a Windows PC,” Mr. Elgin explained, using the logic that “the Mac is more elegant than Windows, but most people prefer Windows.” He acknowledged that “Microsoft will never sell a media player that is more elegant than the iPod. That’s just not going to happen, given the DNA of each company.” The biggest issue he sees with the iPod is its lack of customization options, something he thinks many people want, given the existence of such Web sites as iPod Hacks, where users explain how to install Linux on an iPod and then write or download applications that let them play the classic game Doom, turn an iPod into a universal TV remote control, and more. “This is what people do, even when Apple bans it,” Mr. Elgin wrote. “Imagine what would be possible if Microsoft encouraged modification of the Zune. Let people transform the Zune into an Xbox game controller, a TV remote control, a portable presentation device, a wireless PC hard drive or a Vista gadget emulator. Give me a wireless keyboard and a Zune version of Pocket Outlook, and I’ll never buy another iPod. Build ClearType into Zune and make it the ultimate eBook reader (and sell eBooks on Zune Marketplace).” Noting that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that a Zune cell phone is in development, Mr. Elgin said that competition between Microsoft and Apple on that front “changes the dynamics of the Zune-iPod battle entirely. Microsoft has long experience in this space, and has had some success. For example, there are four times as many Windows-based cell phones in the world as there are BlackBerries.” He concluded by saying that Microsoft could crush Apple’s upcoming iTunes cell phone “with a real killer app: VoIP software that uses Zune’s Wi-Fi option to make free or cheap phone calls over the Internet. Imagine downloading free software that transforms your future Zune (complete with microphone) into a cell phone that does not require signing up with — or ever paying — Cingular, Verizon or Sprint!” With that in place, Mr. Elgin reasons that the iPod will be dead, because “history shows that the functionality of stand-alone gadgets always gets folded into multipurpose devices. Apple’s instinct to maximize elegance at the expense of extensibility made them No. 1 in the media player market, but the future belongs to customizable, multifunction players.”