#Run zune on mac portable
It should be understood as a sign that Microsoft intends to tear down the elitist culture of the iPod and turn the portable music device into nothing more than a $9 blister-pack Casio calculator. To that end, the choice of a brown color Zune shouldnit be perceived as very bad taste.
#Run zune on mac how to
Microsoft knows how to appeal to this kind of roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-work crowd. The same people who disparage Apple, its philosophy, and latest TV ads are the very same people who donit want to be cool. Rather, one wants to make the portable music player a humdrum commodity device. The way to dilute this is not to come out with a cool device. They understood the business benefit of giving away an iPod, while Apple was (and remains) constrained to carry the banner of product identity and branding. There were healthy crowds in their booth hoping to win a (valuable) iPod. However, all our channel and developer partners would have a raffle. Why? Hereis the Apple logic: The iPod has great value. But thatis not in Microsoftis DNA.įor example, I did many presentations, computer shows, and professional conferences with Apple. They have the money to attract the design talent. If Microsoft wanted to design something really cool, they could. Even if you can only afford an iPod Shuffle for US$79, it still amounts to a fashion and life-style statement inherited from its larger siblings. A deeper understanding is, as usual, embedded in the politics of the device. The key to reviewing the Zune is not to look at the features that it provides. Whether or not it works this time will be interesting to watch. Even so, there is every sign that Microsoft is trying to pull the same stunt that they pulled with Windows 3. They have resources and a better channel. Theyire better prepared to move on a dime. The current company is more nimble and in a better financial position. Appleis executive team is a whole lot smarter than Apple was in 1990. Eventually, they both left Apple in quasi-disgrace when Windows 3 took off. Itis the same kind of over-confidence that John Scully and Jean Louis Gasse? had at Apple in 1990. What we didnit expect is that over-confidence is exactly what Microsoft wants at this point. These themes run rampant in the initial reviews of the Microsoft Zune. " War - at least, when it is pursued with sense and skill - is about the creation of political value."Īrrogance.