July 22, 2006
Microsoft officially announced Zune today and, despite some assurance that Playsforsure will continue – the message to its hardware partners couldn’t be more negative: do as I do, not as I say. I can only imagine what implications this may have on other Microsoft platforms. What if Microsoft isn’t satisfied with its smart phone market share? Will it provide its own? And Napster and the like won’t be the only ones feeling the heat of competition. What about MSN Music? Does it support the home team or the new castoffs?
In any case, in addition to the dubious headline-grabbing strategy of buying out the music purchases of iTMS customers, Microsoft is going after two areas where Apple has not pushed forward -Wi-Fi and recommendations. Yes, the iTunes Music Store has a variety of ways to discover music, such as iMixes and it’s “Just for you” recommendation engine, but the sum of it isn’t as effective as the recommendation engine on even, say, Yahoo! Music. I’m a bit skeptical of community recommendations like the kind Microsoft is promising, but they’re more effective if they’re explicit rather than implicit.
As a way of transferring music, Wi-Fi has some convenience advantages, but the intereting application comes from music sharing. The nut here is that the users will have to have music subscriptions — still a tough sell — for this to be effective.
July 8, 2006
Make no mistake. Microsoft can do hardware right, and its list of PC hardware innovations and successes is long if imperfect. (CNet has a surface-skimming retrospective that includes the fictional iLoo, a subject of some elaborate toilet humor. It should be noted, though, that MSN TV actually uses RCA-branded hardware.)
There’s also no disputing that there’s room for innovation in the portable media player market, but it sure doesn’t sound as if the company has anything up its sleeve dramatically more compelling than what its partners have developed, or the iPod for that matter. Count me among those who think this will do more to hurt Microsoft’s hardware partners than Apple. And Microsoft would have to cap the alleged reimbursement on songs purchased through iTunes. For heavy iTunes users, such compensation could certainly exceed the price of the player. My colleague is more sanguine.
The best thing Microsoft could do with its player would be to introduce a slew of accessories that no other Playsforsure device has been able to muster because none have reached critical mass — speaker docks, car chargers and integration kits and the like. Microsoft’s hardware partners have been talking about the need for a dock connector to compete with Apple’s for a long time and are apparently working with CEA to make it happen, but such a standard has still not surfaced. Microsoft could jump start that with its own player.
There’s anothing thing it could do that might make a difference – advertise it on television a lot.
June 13, 2006
Apple today expanded its "Get a Mac" campaign with three more amusing ads in which the Mac character gently jibes his anthropomorphized plaform rival."Work vs. Home" and especially "Out of the Box" (we're flattered) include great punch lines, although Macs now come with some heavyweight trialware of their own from Apple (iWork) and Microsoft (Office).
The weakest of the ads, though ("Touché"), is the most revealing. Apple is now advertising nationally that Macs can run Windows, elevating Boot Camp to more than just a technological curiosity and virtually assuring that it will address Vista compatibility in a timely fashion. Well, at least something about Vista stands to be timely.
In addition, greater numbers of Mac users using Windows means that one of the principal companies involved needs to step forward to support this configuration. Apple won't. Microsoft should.
I'm quoted today in an MSNBC story regarding electronic books. I recently blogged that the iRex approach of targeting B2B applications was a better market introduction strategy than offering products such as the Sony Reader at retail, but this article raises the possibility of subsidizing the device's through the established subscription model for newspapers and magazines. That has more potential than, say, subsidizing MP3 players through subscription services such as Napster or Audible.
Still, while the electronic ink in this generation may offer a leap forward, it's a poor fit for colorful magazines or even newspapers, the static editions of which compare poorly in timeliness to the constantly updated Web. We'll need more mainstream wireless data usage before we see the dynamically changing stories in electronic newspapers such as those in the movie Minority Report.
May 31, 2006
AMD may have been late to RSVP to Microsoft's Media Center party, but its AMD Live initiative is easy to pronounce and easy to understand. Like Intel's VIIV, AMD Live! specifies requirements for processor horsepower and power consumption. It also focuses on personal content, an underutilized asset by PC manufacturers. PCMag,com lays out the software suite, which includes several excellent free Web services from Orb Networks and Streamload, but also some that, while useful, have little to do with multimedia or entertainment, such as Pure Networks' Network Magic and LogMeIn, a competitor to the better-known GoToMyPC from Citrix Online.
Speaking of Orb, Avvenu announced that it can now stream music files from your PC (like Orb) and mirror your files on its servers (like Google Desktop). The latter service will have a $30/year subscription fee. I've been a fan of Avvenu's simplicity, but I'll be interested to see how it handles MP3 files as its organization scheme is not the best.
Maybe it's playing a bit of catch-up, but AMD seems to be keeping pace with Intel on power consumption, the golden criterion cited by Apple in embracing Intel exclusivity. The Mac product line isn't broad enough to leave a lot of room for multiple chip suppliers, but switches aren't unprecedented. Ask IBM.
May 27, 2006
Samsung's Q1 microsite marks the first time that the rubber has hit the road in terms of UMPC marketing — no vague concept videos here. On a macro level, the phrase "digital freedom" has a solid ring. The site does the best job to date of articulating the form factor's benefits including functionality such as "instant entertainment" (being able to watch videos and photos without having to boot XP) and a microphone that should enable VoIP with appropriate Wi-Fi availability.
On the other hand, "convergence" as a marketing term doesn't represent real benefit to consumers per se and the demonstration of the Q1's ability to switch orientations to accept notes like a Tablet PC features the drawing of a funny face. That doesn't make a strong case for plunking down $1100 and may be the most blatant demonstration of frivolous technology functionality since the tongue-in-cheek Saturday Night Live Macintosh Post-It Note parody.
May 26, 2006
This may be the most difficult sell to come out of Redmond in ages. JPEG works. Its quality is excellent. Flash memory is ludicrously cheap; many consumers will run out of battery life before they run out of storage capacity. And pros are not going to use compressed files. Forget it.
I suppose this team will next move on to tackle Microsoft Wheel.
May 25, 2006
Depicting cell phones and digital cameras small enough to be worn like overgrown pendants have long been a marketing ploy by technology vendors even though consumers rarely carry them that way. Perhaps they have all striven to escape the "pocket prison" — that valuable real estate that can accommodate only one or two mobile devices. As exercise accessories, we've certainly seen many armbands that can accommodate bantam devices like the lightweight iPod Shuffle or iPod nano (or even their less bantam CD and portable tape playing forebears), but again it is pretty rare to see people wearing these devices outside of a gym or running track.
However, two new technology advances showcased this week show that we are indeed on the precipice of infiltrating technology into the everday. The Nike+Apple Sport Kit is an inexpensive accessory for athletic shoes that sell for as little as $85 while the Abacus 2006 watch appears to be the first one with Microsoft's SPOT technology that isn't conspicuously thick. MSN Direct has other obstacles, such as competing with increasingly savvy cell phones and building a subscription business, but both products represent fresh approaches to data-enabling formerly dumb devices.
May 18, 2006
Apple yesterday rounded out its portable lineup with the 13" widescreen MacBook, replacing both previous iBooks and the 12" PowerBook, Apple would have benefitted on the low end from a Core Solo procesor in the $799 range. Still, going widescreen will be a huge boon for the most portable of MacBooks and the black exterior — which will be the first for a Mac since the PowerBook G3s — should attract Mac businesspeople concerned that white is a bit too "consumerish." There was simply too little separating the iBook from the PowerBook in the 12" size. iSight and MagSafe will also be welcome additions.
Now the only thing Apple really needs in its portable lineup is wide-area wireless.
May 3, 2006
Apple's come a long way from the insecure militant definsiveness that characterized the days of Guy Kawasaki's EvangeList mailing list. It's switcher campaign of several years ago was generally viewed as having mixed results. Apple put a human face on the Mac vs. PC debate, but the implication that those who hadn't made the switch were somehow still putting up with inferior technology left a bad taste in many PC users' mouths.
Apple's new commercials now personify the computers themselves. The "PC" (which looks a bit like a Bill Gates who's let himself go) is generally dressed in a suit or sport jacket while the "Mac" is an unapologetic, slightly scruffy hipster. The two generally seem to get along and even hold hands in one ad. Most derision of the PC is done as the kind of playful teasing that would occur between two friends. An iLife ad shows that iPods and iTunes can work with Windows, but doesn't make the case that they work better on a Mac (and they do, due to AppleScript and iLife integration).
In any case, the friendly ribbing approach works well for Apple to take in these days when its computers can run Windows and of course is well-timed as the company takes advantage of Windows Vista's delay. Vista would address several of the PC deficiencies addressed in the commercials.
