The top 5 things in the digital music world that didn't happen in 2006
#2 - Microsoft didn't try
- With Apple merely treading water in 2006 it seemed that there might be
room for a challenger. The obvious candidate was Microsoft's
Zune. On paper the Zune looked like it could be a serious
contender. It had some novel features like wifi and song sharing. It had
a nice display and cool interface. But the Zune had a few
problems at launch. The gadget bloggers had horrible install problems with the first Zunes. There were some rather strange images and advertisements.
The device itself looked and felt like a brick compared to the
iPod. The device didn't support podcasts. It didn't work
with Vista. You had to use confusing Zune Points to buy songs. And
on and on. Now these glitches could have been forgiven - Microsoft is
known for under-delivering on version 1.0 products - if the core
experience was novel and interesting. But the key distinguishing
feature of the Zune - the song sharing (aka 'squirting') was hamstrung -
by overbearing DRM - the shared songs would dissolve after 3 plays or 3
days. The Zune wifi couldn't be used for syncing or listening to
streaming internet radio. Microsoft turned its back on its
PlayForSure licensees by creating a new and incompatible DRM - (the only
reason was to create their own iTunes-like proprietary music silo) and
perhaps worst of all Microsoft bought into the fiction put forward by
the music labels that anyone with a digital music player must be a
thief. Microsoft agreed to pay a music tax to Universal
for every Zune sold. It was almost as if Microsoft wasn't even
trying with the Zune. Bill Gates even said admitted that Microsoft
had only 'modest'
aspirations with the Zune. Despite my misgivings about Microsoft
in general, I was really hoping that they would do something interesting
with the Zune - at least that would stimulate some innovation in the
digital music world. But I fear Michael Robertson's prediction about the Zune will be right on the mark.