Zune takes a drubbing from critics

Microsoft's Zune music player is taking a drubbing from reviewers. The list of things that don't work or are awkward is so long that it is hard to imagine how it could have happened.

Most of the problems have to do with the desktop computer that one might use to load music onto a Zune. Microsoft requires a certain OS configuration (minimum of XP with SP2) and a fairly hefty hardware set up (e.g. 1.5 gig of memory). There are a lot of home users that may not have the right box before they get started. Microsoft also forces you to use IE 7 to download the music--you can't use Firefox, which according to one reviewer, eliminates 40% of users in Germany and 20% in Australia, and about 10% in the U.S. Why on earth would a company deliberately alienate tens of millions of customers that way?

But wait, it gets worse. Zune does not work with Microsoft's own Windows Media Player (WMP). For some mysterious reason, the company chose not to do a simple upgrade of the WMP, but instead created an entirely new piece of hard to install software with FEWER features than WMP. Huh? But wait, it gets worse. You cannot buy music from the Zunes Marketplace (the equivalent of the iTunes Music Store) with a credit card. Instead, you have to buy "Zune Points," which is great for Microsoft (kind of like a gift card, where you have to spend the money up front), but just another road block for customers.

The much touted WiFi only works with other Zunes, and anything you beam to a friend disappears after three days, which kind of makes sense with licensed music, but the Zune will take a free recording--even something you made yourself--and if you beam it to someone else, it also disappears in three days. So Microsoft basically hijacks your own stuff without your permission.

The critics are predicting the Zune will die a quick death. I am not so sure. Microsoft has a long history of releasing poorly designed Version 1.0 stuff and then slowly (and painfully) making changes that improve the product. Time will tell, but so far, the Zune is not getting anyone excited. If the Zune is any indication, it shows that Microsoft is failing to adjust to an expanding marketplace with more competition (e.g. Google) and less reliance on the desktop (e.g. Web apps). Most of the problems with the Zune have to do with what appears to be an intentional plan on the part of Microsoft to force their customers to do things the Microsoft way, in a world where the company no longer has the kind of monopoly power to do that.