Tech Review: MicroSoft Shows its Love for its Customers

First, from SlashDot:

* Linux Viruscan..... Windows 95 found. Remove it? (Y/y) -- Unknown source

And here's the love:

"The New York Times reports that Microsoft has a new deal with Universal to share profits from Zune player sales.

Link.

This is rather incredible even for a consumer-hating company like M$.

If the Zune achieves any traction, any significant marketshare, this will pressure an increase in pricing at the iTunes Store which, at the end of the day, has been the most significant force for the promotion and growth of legal downloading of music. We all know the iTS can take a price increase within reason with no problem -- really, album prices are pretty cheap -- but only to the point. Meanwhile, the labels have been doing an excellent job proving that their obsession with money over all else has been a pretty crappy model; they still seem reluctant to sell anything worth buying or paying their, as opposed to iTunes', price for. (I exagerate but obviously there's a lack of compelling acts and that, at the end of the day, is what's hurting unit sales.)

And this deal is only another piece of that whole, as it were.

The availability of Zune in brown is a very significant sign.

Speaking of Zune: Someone noted that M$ never gets v.1 quite right but eventually does in a later version. So if M$ had such great models as iTunes and the iPod to rip off why did they get it so wrong: an awful purchase system where the buyer of music loans M$ money; dishonest prices at the Zune store and a bigger but crappy display?

I'm telling you; brown is a sign.

So down the line we may all pay for Zune whether we buy one or not. And the labels' product will suck.

And another thing: The reality of Zune, like many things M$, doesn't match the talk.

At the the end of the dy, the sole advantage, even if and when the ZuneScamStore and unit equal iPod and iTunes is that the PCs will presumably come with all the crap to be Zune-friendly.

However, all it takes is a fast download to get iTunes and the store on the PC and there is no comparison. If you know enough to be able to get music online and move it onto a player, you have the knowledge and the will to download iTunes and get a far better experience than, given, you know, history, M$ will ever do.

There's a word for Zunesters:

Suckers.

And remember, it comes in brown for a reason.



Miss Zune 2006