Zune HD Goes 64GB. Briefly

By  |  Monday, March 29, 2010 at 10:38 am

Was that a 64GB Zune HD Microsoft was touting? Why yes, yes, it was.

(Thinking about the Zune HD reminds me to wonder: What’s its future, especially with the similar Windows Phone 7 Series in the offing? You gotta think that maybe Microsoft will release a Zune that’s very much like a Windows Phone 7 handset but without the phone part, thereby extending the platform in an iPod Touch-like manner…)

 
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  1. sfmitch Says:
    March 29th, 2010 at 11:03 am

    Microsoft should absolutely continue to copy Apple’s playbook in the handheld space and introduce an iPod Touch like device (Windows 7 phone without the phone). Once they have the new Zune Series 7, Microsoft should introduce a WinTablet Series 7.

    Shouldn’t Microsoft be able to save a lot of money by firing their strategists and just continue to copy what Apple has done with the iPhone / iPod Touch / App Store.

  2. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    March 29th, 2010 at 3:37 pm

    The problem with Microsoft just following in Apple’s footsteps is:

    * Microsoft’s customers have nothing in common with Apple’s customers … Microsoft’s customers are OEM hardware makers, while Apple’s are consumers

    * Microsoft and Apple are structured in an entirely different way … for example, Apple has 36,000 employees, 10,000 of which are retail, while Microsoft has 60,000 coders and 30,000 managers … Apple is very tightly focused; Microsoft is sprawling

    So Microsoft’s OEM customers would have rather had Windows XP 2005 instead of Mac-inspired Windows Vista in 2007, and they would have rather had Windows Mobile 7 in 2008 instead of iPhone-inspired Windows Phone 7 in 2011. They wanted PlaysForSure, not Zune.

    And even if Microsoft takes Apple’s strategy verbatim, they can’t execute on it because they don’t have the design and hardware and retail and support expertise. They’re like a football team trying to be a baseball team.

    So it isn’t necessarily a recipe for success to just cook Apple’s menu a few years behind them. Or Google’s, for that matter.