Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 27 November 2006 18:04
Your IT -
Entertainment
Page 3 of 4
But consistent reports have indicated that PlaysForSure just didn’t, with too many competing devices that obviously weren’t following whatever standard was set closely enough to guarantee file playability across all WMA compatible devices.
Funnily enough all of these competing mp3 players never seemed to have any trouble playing mp3’s, which usually come in all flavours, sizes and encoding bit rates. Perhaps mp3 playback was a higher priority than WMA DRM playback, and despite Microsoft’s efforts, no-one seemed to be doing anything about it.
So Microsoft was forced to create the Zune, and they decided to copy Apple’s closed system of only having one iTunes store from which to legally purchase DRM’d content by creating their own such store.
They also decided to put all of the knowledge learned from the huge number of non-iPod mp3 players over the years, couple that with learnings from the market leading iPod itself, mix in some Microsoft magic and come out with a player at least as good as the iPod, with hopefully a couple of unique features to try to compete.
But despite all of Microsoft’s previous experience in the world of mp3 players, the Zune is the first true draft of their own. While it works as advertised, it is an unfinished work. It is a toe in the water, testing to see how warm – or cold – the water really is. And this time with their own toe, not the toes of their partners.
It has the wireless feature. It has a nicer menu and user interface. It has a bigger screen. But it’s not a better iPod.
It’s a good enough first device that is probably the equivalent of Windows 3.1. Will we have to go through the equivalent of Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP and then Vista before we get a Zune that lights our fire as an undeniably awesome and very cool digital media player?
I hope it doesn’t take as long as it has taken to Vista, which, as I write this, is still three days away from the November 30, 2006 launch!
As for Apple’s next iPod... it has been rumoured for the longest time now to have a widescreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a touch screen, some kind of PDA capability, a built-in coffee maker and a kitchen sink.
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