The Microsoft Zune is generally only a footnote in tech historical past. Microsoft spent years — and huge sums of cash — making an attempt to create a real competitor to Apple’s iPod, with out ever coming shut to really pulling it off. The Zune was just too little, too late.
what’s shocking concerning the Zune, although? Microsoft made lots of the appropriate bets with the Zune. The corporate noticed — effectively forward of many of the remainder of the tech trade — that including social options may make its product stickier. It understood that these pocketable units would possibly ultimately be helpful for far more than simply music. And it had a bunch of interface design concepts which can be nonetheless very current in our lives right now. The universe during which the Zune was a smash isn’t so far-off (And there are loads of followers on this one, too.) Possibly if it hadn’t been brown, you recognize?
For this episode of Model Historical past, we inform the entire story of the unique Zune. (There’s a Zune HD episode to do right here sooner or later – extra on that one other time.) David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Victoria Track flash again to the times of MSN Music, the Toshiba Gigabeat, and the Xbox 360, to try to work out the long run Microsoft noticed coming. The hosts additionally speak via the stunning ambition behind Zune, which was meant to be a lot, far more than only a music participant. Microsoft even made new sorts of offers with the leisure trade, to assist its huge imaginative and prescient. And eventually, they focus on why the Zune didn’t work, and whether or not it ever even had an opportunity.
That is the fourth episode of Model Historical past. If you wish to discover the present, there are three good locations to go:
Because of everybody who has already watched or listened to the present, and has despatched suggestions! We’re already placing on the subsequent bunch of episodes, and need to hear the whole lot you assume we needs to be doing or not doing or doing otherwise. What number of extra MP3 gamers deserve their very own episodes? You inform us. Within the meantime, if you wish to know extra concerning the Zune story, listed below are some hyperlinks to get you began: