Zune price cuts

If you really want to undercut Apple's iPod, they need to drop the 80 GB and 120 GB to spur sales. Unless they severely undercut the iPod, I don't think it will do much to spur sales or transfer people over. As for me, I'm still looking to upgrade to a higher GB iPod. Never the less, its a good move. I'm always a big fan of lower prices.

The Zune ad on SciFi channel two nights ago did mention the price of one or two models, but seem to focus on the version 3 update. It didn't use 3.0 or 3.1, but just showed 3.

MS is making some good moves with the price drop that is for sure, and the software is finally good. Version 1.0 had to be the worst software I have ever used. Still its a tough, tough battle that only MS cant even attempt to wage because of its mountain of money. I think HD based MP3 players are rapidly on their way out. In 5 years even consumer PC's will probably be mostly SSD. It wont be long before there are 64gig flash versions of the iTouch or Zune. In the low end market (shuffle/Nano) MS has the biggest chance. Its feature set is better hands down, and with the price drops its really going after that market. Still tough to fight Apple at all in this market. I know people that call any MP3 player an iPod no matter who makes it, that is the definition of established, iPod is a house hold name. On the top end the Zune just cant compete. The only thing its got going for it is space on the Zune 120. The huge amount of content and applications that are available for the iTouch is something MS just cant compete with. As far as subscription service, I wonder how important that is. I bet some just cant live with out it. Others hear a song on the radio, tv, movie and then sample it on iTunes or Amazon and then purchase it....with money, not POINTS. There are rumor reports going around that iTunes is going to start offering a ton of DRM free music, staring with Sony. OT Xbox 360 got its Wii dashboard update yesterday or Tuesday. It comes with the netflix piece to view movies. Sony pulled all movies from Netflix if you access Netflix online via the 360, over 600 movies from what I read. Ahh the battle goes on at all fronts:)

Lol Mike, way to turn that around in favor of MS and downplay the Apple advantage. In this case, so far, that is NOT what is happening...at all.

Actually, bettieblu, I only pointed out that a brand name going generic doesn't automatically offer an advantage for the company that lost control of that brand name. Now, how is that turning anything "in favor of MS"? Really, I'm quite curious about the logic.

Mike your right. You only pointed out that its note helpful for Apple, based on???? Your dislike of all things Apple?

Actually, bettiblu, I never even mentioned Apple.

bettieblu So you accused me of "turn[ing] that around in favor of MS and downplay[ing] the Apple advantage" by my posting a generic comment that wasn't about Apple. Wow. That says a lot about the filter you use to view the world.

I like ya Mike. Criticism of Apple is often helpful to improvement in the future, or insight to my desktop's potential problems. Can I drive your Lotus now?

Mike, "The misconception of having your brand become a generic phrase is that it corresponds into continued sales. A lot of people who call any facial tissue "Kleenex" buy Puffs when they shop for "Kleenex" A lot of people in the southern US who call any carbonated beverage a "Coke" buy Pepsi when they shop for "Coke" I'm sure Microsoft would be just fine with people buying a Zune when they shop for an "iPod"." There is some truth to the downside of having a brand name turned into a generic commodity name. Consider "Simonize" as a nearly extinct verb derived from an extinct (or nearly extinct?) product. However, there is this little thing called the "iTunes Store" which serves to differentiate the iPod from everything else. Strictly for music, this differentiation means less than it used to, although the iTunes store is still easier to use than anything else. However, the "MP3 player" market is now a pretty specialized area, all iPods (and their competitors) do a lot more than that, so the IS adds a lot of product differentiation. Paul long ago predicted--correctly--that MP3 players would be subsumed into phones. Of course, he got it totally wrong that this would spell doom for the iPod; instead the iPod turned into a "phone", or more correctly, into a portable computing device that is a phone, mp3 player, portable gaming device, GPS, etc. I'm glad to see Microsoft compete on price; it'll keep Apple honest and might keep Microsoft in the game.

"Silly but I have seen it described that way in many articles. My 360 has not been on a network since July, maybe I will plug it in and check it out. The screen shots I have seen make it look like the Wii avatars." And you're complaining about Mike? They've made a lot of changes, but the only one the media uses to describe it is the one that is "copied". Again, this is just silly!

subzero While I'd agree that HD based music players are on their way out (and good riddance, a portable device is the last place to put a spinning hunk of metal or glass), I'd suspect first that solid state devices will take up the capacity challenge fairly soon. I do suspect, though, that they won't bother with the extra electronics of an SSD that are needed to make it emulate a spinning platter disk drive.

@mikegalos: "I'm sure Microsoft would be just fine with people buying a Zune when they shop for an "iPod" But the user wouldn't be so stupid as to actually buy a lame-duck music player like a Zune when they expect the quality and superiority of an iPod. The Zune is as niche as the Commodore 64 is today.