MSN Music presses mute on downloads
,----[ Quote ]
| Two years after opening its MSN Music store to compete with Apple
| Computer's iTunes, Microsoft plans to stop selling downloads from
| the site, CNET News.com has learned.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6132201.html
MSN and the XBox have been losing a lot of money. Even search continue to
decline every month. Some of the latest:
Google, Ask Gain Search Share; Yahoo, Microsoft Lose Ground
,----[ Quote ]
| Thursday afternoon reported that Google increased its share of
| U.S. search queries in September to 45.1%, up from 44.1% in
| August and 43.7% in July.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/061020/18896_id.html?.v=1
Related:
How Much is Too Much?
,----[ Summary ]
| Microsoft says it will stick with Xbox. But with years of heavy losses
| behind it, the pressure's on for the gaming division to make good
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2006/id20061013_283856.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
http://tinyurl.com/yxdr4j
Microsoft stoic despite massive losses
,----[ Quote ]
| If you were to judge by the PR rhetoric, you'd think the 360 was
| an unstoppable commercial juggernaut. As usual though, PR lies.
`----
http://www.gamerscan.com/articles/06/10/09/microsofts.massive.losses/
Microsoft Hides Its Mobile and Business Apps Divisions
,----[ Quote ]
| The company is folding its two worst-performing divisions -- Microsoft
| Business Solutions (its business applications unit) and its Mobile and
| Embedded units -- into the Microsoft Business Division and Microsoft Home
| and Entertainment units, respectively.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1990243,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
Gamers Say Microsoft Understates Xbox Problems
,----[ Quote ]
| An insider from Electronic Arts, Inc. is saying that the failure rate
| of Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console is actually ten times higher than
| what Microsoft spokespeople have admitted.
|
| Game Daily BIZ, a gaming industry publication, reported that the
| anonymous source tallied that of the 300 consoles EA has received,
| 30-50 percent of them have failed.
`----
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/xbox_gamers02.html
Game Sales Jump, Despite Xbox Slump
,----[ Quote ]
| Regardless of what happens this holiday season, August represented yet
| another month of disappointing sales for Microsoft's Xbox 360. Pachter
| for one had predicted that the company would sell between 200,000 and
| 300,000 consoles last month, but the sales came in at the bottom of
| that range, according to the NPD data he cited.
`----
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalysis/techstockupdate/10308023.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
The Secret Failures of Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| There is no choice involved; even most Linux users are forced to pay for a
| Microsoft license in order to obtain a brand name PC.
|
| [...]
|
| They are bound to an oath to swear allegiance to Windows XP Professional,
| and must never mention Linux and Windows in the same breath. If they step
| out of line in any way, Microsoft dramatically raises their OEM licensing
| fees and sends them to indoctrination camp, where they face chairs being
| hurled at them by angry monkeys.
|
| [...]
|
| Why do Windows enthusiasts exibit much hostility to an obvious fact?
| Because if they admit that 80% of the company's revenues come entirely
| from an OEM tax, and not from any choice on the part of consumers...
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft's decade of investments in WinCE and Windows Mobile
| Smartphones have only barely matched the market share of Palm, which
| itself is a run down company out of ideas. Microsoft couldn't
| out-maneuver the incompetent Palm within a decade of trying; now both
| are ineffectually fighting over the dying PDA industry while Linux and
| Symbian slaughter them in the smartphone arena:
|
| Symbian 75%; Linux 14%; Microsoft 5%; Palm 5%.
|
| [...]
|
| (many more failures listed)
`----
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/2E6D9BB2-FE1B-4556-8389-67BD581FBCCC.html
The Zune, which is where requests for music will be routed, is expected to be
a failure as well. It will only launch in the States, perhaps as means of
reducing damage (XBox wasn't muchly welcomed overseas).
Microsoft might be too little, too late
,----[ Quote ]
| Apple, though, learned from its mistakes and made the iPod work
| with Microsoft Windows-based PCs -- a move that arguably spurred iPod
| sales and created a situation in which Apple's iPod now claims about
| 75 percent of the U.S. market for digital-media players. More
| importantly, this has led to a perception among consumers that if you
| don't own an iPod, you're using something that's second best.
|
| It's that environment and perception issue that will prove to be the
| biggest hurdles for Microsoft to overcome, if it wants to make any
| impression among consumers who are in the market for portable music-
| and video-playing gadgets.
`----
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060917/BUSINESS/609170330/1092
10 Ways Microsoft Can Salvage their iPod Killer
,----[ Quote ]
| Dear Microsoft:
|
| I can't help but noticing that this latest iPod killer situation is
| unfolding along the same lines as Origami. It's not too late to call the
| whole thing a 'market research experiment,' or to rebrand all your
| products under a new name to distract attention away from this
| boondoggle: Active-, Direct-, -.net, -Live!... how about -Kaboom! ?
`----
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/37A4A383-9B55-4692-8A96-B1A44DAC0941.html
Zune: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
,----[ Quote ]
| The fact is, this meager offering here is not an iPod killer. Nothing
| Redmond can produce in this product line will make much of a dent in
| Apple's lead. This shareholder only hopes Microsoft can avoid
| embarrassing itself too much.
`----
http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06091517.htm?source=eptyholnk303100&logvisit=y&npu=y
Microsoft's Zune Won't Play Protected Windows Media
,----[ Quote ]
| In yesterday's announcement of the new Zune media player and Zune
| Marketplace, Microsoft (and many press reports) glossed over a
| remarkable misfeature that should demonstrate once and for all how DRM
| and the DMCA harm legitimate customers.
|
| Microsoft's Zune will not play protected Windows Media Audio and Video
| purchased or "rented" from Napster 2.0, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Unlimited,
| Movielink, Cinemanow, or any other online media service. That's right --
| the media that Microsoft promised would Play For Sure doesn't even play
| on Microsoft's own device. Buried in footnote 4 of its press release,
| Microsoft clearly states that "Zune software can import audio files in
| unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4,
| H.264" -- protected WMA and WMV (not to mention iTunes DRMed AAC) are
| conspicuously absent.
|
| This is a stark example of DRM under the DMCA giving customers a raw
| deal. Buying DRMed media means you're locked into the limited array of
| devices that vendors say you can use. You have to rebuy your preexisting
| DRMed media collection if you want to use it on the Zune. And you'll have
| to do that over and over again whenever a new, incompatible device with
| innovative features blows existing players out of the water. Access to
| MP3s and non-DRMed formats creates the only bridge between these isolated
| islands of limited devices.
`----
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2006/09/15#a2498
"There's the spirit of sharing, which Zune encourages by letting Zunies
swap music over a built-in wireless network. But all things must pass --
in this case, within 72 hours. You'll have three days in which to listen
to each song three times, at which point it is summoned back to the
great server in the sky. Doesn't matter if you're passing your parents a
recording you made of your kid being cute -- Zune will banish it. Unless
Microsoft is willing to let other companies join in the fun, your
chances of sharing anything will be limited by the number of other Zune
owners within a 50m radius. Perhaps that's the new digital rights
management strategy -- Zero Users, No Exchange."
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalmusic/0,39029432,49283610,00.htm
Muted welcome for Microsoft Zune
,----[ Quote ]
| As part of the Zune launch Microsoft flew some influential music bloggers
| to Seattle for a preview of the player and the service.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5348674.stm
New Zune Software Eerily Similar to Democracy Player...
,----[ Quote ]
| Take a look at the new Zune player software. Notice anything strange?
| It's the fact that the interface is a blatant ripoff of the open
| source Democracy player. Microsoft once again has to take other
| companies ideas and turn them into their own. Almost the same basic
| scenario of Mircosoft ripping off the iPod with Zune.
`----
http://yourdailydose.wordpress.com/2006/09/15/new-zune-software-eerily-similar-to-democracy-player/
Could Zune face patent trouble right out of the box?
,----[ Quote ]
| I've speculated that Zune's music sharing features could see a rocky
| road legally, or be so restricted as to make sharing irrelevant as a
| selling point for the fledgling device. It's really tough to put out a
| product these days without stepping on someone's patent, and Zune is
| no exception to that rule of 21st century business.
`----
http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/2006/09/08/could-zune-face-patent-trouble-right-out-of-the-box/
http://tinyurl.com/h33np
,----[ Quote ]
| "It's not going to happen with the Zune, it's going to be a closed
| architecture. You'll not be able to load tracks directly form online.
| You might be able to -- stream them from another device, but then who
| cares? I think it's going to be an utter disaster and failure."
`----
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=18352&hed=Linspire+Founder+on+Linux%2C+iPod%2C+Zune
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