Some companies release a new product in a highly competitive established market area and hope to then out-do an already existing dominant product. Microsoft's recent Zune media player has been released in this time-honoured tradition - but to mediocre reviews.
MSN was hoping to make a splash in the market with the so-called "iPod Killer"; unfortunately for Microsoft, less than complimentary views have not helped to make a good first impression. A reviewer from the Wall Street Journal called the Zune "rushed and incomplete," "big and blocky," and a gadget with a "terrible battery life." Also criticised are the digital rights management protocols, which are deemed too restrictive and the Bluetooth file-sharing interface, which has been called "too clunky and slow" by Steve Jobs. The fact that the Zune is not able to interface directly with Microsoft's online media player, and must instead use a separate application, has not garnered glowing praise either.
It's not all bad news for Microsoft though. Other reviewers have praised the Zune for being intuitively easy to use; and while there may be room for slight improvements, established gadget reviewer, Ryan Block wrote, "what we saw is a very decent start". Microsoft also promises to eventually link the Zune to its MSN Live service. Can the negative reviews just be pinned down to a long established Microsoft-o-phobia? We'll just have to wait and see.
Other companies, like Google, have such a large dominance over the traditional organic search sector that they are willing to take chances on unproven concepts in digital media and associated products. With the massive and established success of Google AdWords and their pay-per-click programmes, Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently envisioned a world where people will not pay for their mobile phones, as long as they agree to sign up for user-targeted ad content arriving as text messages. Schmidt said that in the past, the idea had not been profitable, but as the technological level of phones approaches the level of basic desktop PCs, consumers may spend as much as 8 -10 hours a day talking, texting and using the web on these devices. As a result, phone advertising is becoming a much more viable form of subsidy.
It's an important business concept: would you like to receive constant advertising on your mobile phone in return for cheaper calls, as Yahoo! and Vodafone have agreed this month? This reporter envisions the service being used mostly by younger people who do not wish to pay for monthly contracts - which is exactly the sort of demographic that marketers and product developers go crazy for. Certainly, the battle for dominance over the digital market is far from over and we will undoubtedly see many products we had never even imagined in the months and years to come.
