Zune Thoughts: Digital Trends: Zune Succeeds at Failing

"For some reason Steve Jobs and his team simply doesn’t get this. They tend to block marginal products and spend whatever time is necessary to create music players that people want to buy in large numbers. There are signs they are learning though. The first Shuffle, the ROKR, their handling of the RSS problem. These are things that indicate what may be a growing trend to eventually dominate Microsoft in their quest to create spectacular products that go down in the record books as legendary disasters."

Digital Trends columnist Rob Enderle takes a satirical look at Zune's less than stellar opening volley. Mr. Enderle is inclined to think the Zune will mimic the likes of Mira and Microsoft Phone rather than follow in the footsteps of PocketPC or Xbox. What seems to be a common theme among most anti-Zune articles, is the lack of any consideration that not only is the Zune as we currently know it the first of many offerings in an entire product family, but also only the first stop on a long roadmap of future products and services. It seems the never-ending pre-launch hype about the fabled "iPod killer", whether prompted by Microsoft or the press, raised the industry's expectations too high. When November 14th finally rolled around, and iPod owners were not lined up by the thousands ready to convert, then suddenly the Zune is a complete failure. Did any really expect a mass migration in week one? The Zune plan is long term. Offer a competitive marketplace and viable hardware choices. Then, as users cycle through products, begin shifting the market.