Zune Thoughts: Zune Luv : What's Next For Zune?

"Microsoft has sold a million Zunes - or at least the report goes. Now that they've proven they can get another consumer product into the hands of consumers, here's a plan for what they need to do to make the Zune the kind of consumer product people are excited to get into their hands."

Given the poor response to the 1.4 update released today, Zune Luv has some really great ideas for what Microsoft should be aiming for now that there are nearly a million sold Zunes. I will give a hint: it doesn't involve WiFi. You can read the original article to see their ideas but read on here to see what I thought of their ideas. I kept their bullet points and italicized what they said if I felt it was needed to understand my explanation. Read on!

Turn On Podcasting ASAP. I couldn't agree more with Zune Luv here. If only because then people wouldn't have it as something to wave as a flaw. Podcasting is very important to many people.

Extend Podcasting's Feature Set. You can do stuff that iTunes can't - start doing it. Imagine a world where one Podcaster beams their Podcast to another (or one fan to another) and when they return to the Zune Marketplace, they get a message along the lines of "Would you like to subscribe to the Podcast you were recently beamed?" That would generate more good press and more new subscriptions than anything I can think of right now. Podcasters would love you for it - and I dare say it would sell a few more Zunes.

This is really a brilliant idea and while I've never thought of it in regards to Podcasting, I have thought of this being a great feature for subscription users. If you have a shared song that's available via subscription, the Zune should also update that song and add it to your library if you marked it for such.

Embrace the Podcasting Community. While I like the thinking here, I'm not sure how much room there is for Microsoft to really embrace the community. I think simply supporting podcasting is really more than enough. When Apple embraced them it propelled a fledgling technology.

Give Zune Another Killer Feature. Zune Luv thinks the killer feature for the Zune is video rentals and I could not agree more. This is something I’ve thought about since the day I heard about the Zune. If Microsoft pulled this of I think it would be a paradigm shift for portable media.

Go Viral In Ways That Aren't In The Viral 101 Class At The Local Community College. While this is also a good idea it’s probably the most difficult. The whole idea behind viral is that its community created and propagated. It really should be spontaneous. I think its hard to generate a viral campaign at the corporate level.

Find Some Very Cool Xbox 360 Tie-Ins. This is another obvious one that simply needs to be exploited. The Zune does work very nicely with the XBox. If it could be used as a game accessory somehow that would really be nice. Using it to play music on my XBox has limited value for me since I have my whole library accessible through my network..

Get The Story Straight. Zune went to market at amazing speeds. It's a fascinating little moment in Microsoft's history that I truly believe, one day, the "books" will write about. But, you can't let the time to market be less than the time from market to message. The Windows Media 11 / Urge/ Zune Marketplace / Plays for Sure thing is a mess. Find a way to tell the story better.

I really like what Zune Luv started with this. Of course my response when I saw the title was "Two million". What does everyone else here think that the Zune team should be shooting for going forward?