Just like Live.com, Microsoft is way too late on the Zune
I've already predicted that the Zune is going to be a terrible failure for Microsoft. I have been reading a lot of news about it, and I came across this article at Forbes. So, the features that the Zune will have on the iPod is wireless song sharing and a subscription based music download service (instead of the pay per song model by Apple).
There have been quite a few companies that have tried to go with the subscription model; Napster being one of the most noteable. According to this article, "Apple's iTunes has maintained more than 70 percent of the PC-based digital music download market throughout 2005." As far as MP3 players, the iPod has an 83% market share.
This is starting to sound similar to something else... Um... Oh yeah! Microsoft Live vs Google. By the time MS realized that you could actually make a lot of money in the internet search business, it was way too late for them.
And the same is true with the Zune. When it comes out, if anyone at my school or church buys it, I'm going to personally make a point to clown them. No, the Zune is NOT cool. It's NOT hip. It's NOT sexy. It's not an iPod. People walking around with the Zune will feel inferior to iPod carriers. That's my prediction.
:)