My two cents on Zune

At the risk of piling on to an overcrowded topic, I think it’s worth noting that the Zune guys pulled off a major coup. I don’t think anyone could have reasonably expected Softy to come out with a device that dethroned the iPod, but the fact that they have now officially changed the conversation is what matters.

As people nitpick the device, the UI, the early depth of music selection, I think they largely miss the point. Until today, you couldn’t find an alternative to the iPod in terms of a vertically integrated experience. It was always also-rans (SanDisk, iRiver, Rio, Creative), which built nice product, but were burdened somewhat by cumbersome Playsforsure technology, and bulky and quirky on-line services. These also-rans were forced to differentiate-by-design, which is a losing battle when your market leader is, for better or worse, the de facto leader in ergonomics and industrial design. Even Sony, who one might think… ok let’s not go there.

What Zune did was offer a complete experience for end-users, and added a wireless interface which has amazing option value to both consumers and Microsoft. They didn’t try to battle iPod on design, in fact I think they were skillfully unassuming, and picked a design that is at the very least, non-threatening, and non-polarizing. Keeping the focus on the new features, and the promise of a total solution. Preliminary evidence that Zune was successful was the study published by ABI research that shows even iPod users consider the Zune a viable alternative. How much switching materializes remains to be seen, but if Softy wanted to change the conversation (all one can reasonably expect) in the portable jukebox market, I think the bottom line is, mission accomplished.

I am not waiting in line to pick up my Zune, but rest assured, when the time comes to invigorate my gadget repertoire, the Zune will be on the short list.