Over the past decade,
Microsoft has found that translating its success in operating systems
into other markets isn't always a sure thing. Yes, its Microsoft Office
productivity suite is a blockbuster success, and its enterprise-oriented
Windows Server products aren't too shabby either, but these products
are all obviously related. And Microsoft's Windows, Office, and Windows
Server products are, in fact, still responsible for almost all of the
company's revenues.
That's the problem. True financial success has eluded
most of Microsoft's other products to date, including its digital media
products, its Xbox video game business, and its Live and MSN online
services. In each case, Microsoft's dominance in operating systems and
office productivity software hasn't helped it expand successfully into
other markets.
What's surprising about Microsoft's failure in the
digital media market is that it actually does bundle its excellent
Windows Media Player software with Windows, and it's done so for several
years now. Despite this, Apple has taken a dominant position in the
market with its iPod and iPhone portable devices, its iTunes PC software
and iTunes Store online service, and related products such as the Apple
TV set-top box. Apple's success is well-deserved—its products are
routinely highly rated and are, in fact, almost universally
excellent—but it has caused Microsoft's competing solution, based around
Windows Media Player, to first falter and then fail in the market.
That solution, which was once called PlaysForSure,
sought to duplicate Microsoft's experiences in the PC market. Microsoft
created the software based on its Windows Media platform, consisting of
Windows Media Player, Windows Media and Audio formats, Windows Media DRM
(Digital Rights Management) for content protection, and much more.
However, the company relied on a variety of hardware partners to design,
ship, and market a set of competing portable devices and hardware, much
like different PC makers make PCs. It also relied on a second set of
partners to create online services for music, movies, and other content,
all built on Windows Media.
It sounded like a great idea, but it wasn't really a
great idea because Microsoft couldn't control the entire process. Even
though it might introduce new platform features, it had to wait for the
hardware makers and services to implement support, and when Apple came
along with a centralized solution, controlled and designed by a single
company, consumers took note. Today, PlaysForSure is essentially dead in
the sense that you won't see PlaysForSure logos on any products at your
local electronics retailer. Sure, numerous portable devices (made by
companies such as Creative, Samsung, Sandisk, and others) still work
just fine with Windows Media Player and online services such as Amazon
Unbox, CinemaNow, and Napster, but the PlaysForSure ship has sailed,
people, and the biggest indication that that's true is the fact that
Microsoft, the originator of PlaysForSure and its underlying Windows
Media platform, has moved on to something else, something called Zune.
NOTE
To be fair to Windows Media, the platform has a lot of life left in it;
Windows Media Player, in particular, is an excellent bit of software.
According to Microsoft, it intends to co-develop both Windows Media and
Zune going forward, though the PlaysForSure logo program has been
discontinued and rolled into the more nebulous Designed for Windows logo
program (which, to my knowledge, few device makers and services have
embraced with any particular gusto). Microsoft is throwing considerable
resources at Zune as well and will improve this platform dramatically in
the years ahead. If you're a gambler, this is the obvious pick, at
least on the Microsoft side of the fence.
1. Zune 1.0
To the cynical, Microsoft's Zune platform is a fairly
transparent copy of the Apple play-book. As with Apple's iTunes
platform, Zune is centrally controlled by a single team, in this case
from Microsoft. Like Apple's platform, Zune includes PC software for
organizing and playing music and other content, accessing an online
store, and managing compatible portable devices. Put another way, Zune
is a closed platform, as is Apple's. The Zune devices work only with the
Zune PC software, and the Zune PC software can't be used to manage any
non-Zune devices. The advantages of this kind of solution are tighter
integration between hardware and software and, in the case of Zune, a
growing set of online services.
It's nice when it works out that way, but whereas
Apple has gotten almost everything right with its iPod, iTunes, and
related solutions, Microsoft has stumbled a bit as it tries to find its
way. Today's Zune is a dramatic improvement over the first iteration,
and no doubt future versions will be even better, and the Zune is an
evolving platform, so it's improving steadily over time. As such, it has
certain advantages over the Apple platform, but also some areas where
it falls short.
Microsoft shipped the first Zune version in late
2006. There was a single Zune hardware device, the since-renamed Zune
30, which came in a classic iPod form factor and included a 30GB hard
disk for storage. The original Zune hardware was decent if
unexceptional, but the first Zune software—shown in Figure 1—was
almost comically bad. It was essentially a rebranded version of Windows
Media Player 11 with a weird gray skin. Zune's online store, Zune
Marketplace, was accessed via this software interface.
Was it successful? I guess that depends on how you
define successful. Microsoft sold about 1.5 million Zune 1.0 devices in
its first year on the market, just a tiny fraction of the number of
iPods that Apple sold during the same time period; but Microsoft can and
did accurately claim that this level of sales was enough to catapult
the Zune to the number two position in the market for
hard-drive-equipped MP3 players (behind, yes, the iPod—way behind). Just
by entering this market, even with a decidedly lackluster product,
Microsoft was able to immediately outsell all of the PlaysForSure and
non-Apple competition. That's actually not too shabby.
2. Zune 2
The less that's said about Microsoft's first version
of Zune the better. For the second iteration of the Zune platform,
Microsoft set its sights considerably higher and the results were much
more favorable. With the Zune 2 platform, released in late 2007, there
were more devices, new device capabilities (all of which, amazingly,
were ported back to the original Zune device), new PC software, a
completely redesigned Zune Marketplace, a completely new Zune Social
online community service, and even new hardware accessories. The Zune 2
PC software is shown in Figure 2.
Zune 2 was a revelation, and Microsoft really turned
the Zune around by starting over from scratch. Whereas the
first-generation Zune was all about the hardware, the second-generation
platform expanded dramatically in all areas. The software was built from
scratch and was dramatically better than the first, Windows Media
Player–based, version. The hardware was expanded to include thin and
light flash-based players, the Zune 4 and 8, and a new 80GB hard drive
model, the Zune 80. It was all pretty well conceived.
However, as a new product essentially, Zune 2 had
some issues. The initial release lacked the ability to create smart
playlists, though Microsoft fixed that with a Zune 2.5 release in
mid-2008. Microsoft's online store, Zune Marketplace, had over 1 million
DRM-free tracks—that is, music not bound by copy protection schemes—but
most of the songs sold there were still stuck in DRM hell.
Yes, as a new, built-from-scratch platform, Zune 2
had some holes, but Microsoft filled them over time. Zune 2.5 also added
a number of new features, started a move toward a DRM-free Zune
Marketplace, and offered better Zune Social integration.
3. Zune 3
In late 2008, Microsoft offered up its
third-generation Zune platform, which was really just an evolution of
Zune 2. The devices didn't change from a hardware perspective at all,
though the capacities were upped to 8, 16, and 120GB, respectively. The
PC software and device firmware was further refined with some nifty new
features; and Microsoft expanded on Zune's social networking prowess
with updates to the Zune.net
Web portal and Zune Social. Zune 3 was all about finishing the work
started with Zune 2, and it developed into an amazing platform for
digital music and video. The Zune 3 PC software is shown in Figure 3.
At the time of this writing, Zune 3 is still the
current version of the Zune software, but you can expect Microsoft to
keep releasing new hardware, devices, and services and to generally
improve the Zune platform.
NOTE
You don't need to buy a Zune device to use the
Zune software, Zune Marketplace, or Zune Social. The Zune software is
freely available to anyone running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows
7, as are the online services. That means you can very easily check out
Microsoft's alternative digital media platform without first plunking
down hundreds of dollars on a portable device.
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We'll continue covering future versions of Zune on
the Web. For the very latest in Zune coverage, please stay tuned to Paul
Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows, which has a dedicated Zune section: www.winsupersite.com/zune.
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By itself, the Zune PC software is an excellent alternative to Windows Media Player, so we'll look at that first.
