5 ms·

The zune of phones as in the best device made in both hardware and software quality but just too late to the game to get any traction?

by jjeaff 6y ago

scarface74 6y ago
The Zune came out with a 30GB hard drive player when the world had moved on to flash based smaller players and three months before the iPhone The flash based Zunes similar to the Nanos came out at the same time as the second generation iPod Touch. The Zune HD came out with no apps around the end of 2009. Peak iPod - including the Touch - was 4th quarter 2008. The iPod was already losing steam and even then it was being propped up by the iPod Touch.
- unfunco 6y ago
  And it was brown.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    <sarcasm> If you’re criticizing the Zune because it is brown, you’re a racist piece of crap. You should be Doxxed and reported to your employer </sarcasm> Yes this was a real argument made at the time.
- neodymiumphish 6y ago
  These are all true, but the Zune was still awesome... Video support, awesome customizations, and a very fun interface. I had all 3 of the Zunes you mentioned. My least favorite was the original, because the spinning disc would sometimes hit buffering issues, but the rest of the device family was practically perfect.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    Perfect as long as you didn’t care about third party apps - which were very much a thing by 2009 when the Zune HD came out.
    - rapind 6y ago
      It might be a generational thing but I couldn't care less about third party apps. All I use: email, browser, maps, phone, txt, calendar, camera (non essential for me).
      - scarface74 6y ago
        No it’s not a generational thing - it’s you. That’s like the old Slashdot meme - “I haven’t owned a TV in 10 years Do people still watch TV?”. Seeing that my first computer was an Apple //e in 86, I’m definitely not a young buck.
        nogabebop23 6y ago
        it's not just him, there is a sizeable contingent of people who focus on just these apps for all their uses, and I think it would be much bigger if mobile didn't promote separate apps for everything.
        jjeaff 6y ago
        Our customer base skews older and you wouldn't believe how many customer service tickets we field where they don't know what their apple account password is because they have literally never installed an app on their phone before. And these are people with brand new, most recent model iPhones that get a new one every few years.
- 013a 6y ago
  The Zune 30, the first Zune, and the only 30gb Zune player you could be speaking about, was released in Nov 2005. By comparison, Apple's flash offerings in 2005 included the 1G Shuffle (1gb) and the 1G Nano (4gb). These were not large and complex enough devices to be considered competitors to the Zune 30; Apple's competitor to the Zune 30 was the 5G Classic, which came in 30/60/80gb hard drive sizes. I'm not sure how you got "three months before the iPhone" when the Zune 30 was released in Nov 2005 and the iPhone was released in June 2007. That's not 3 months, that's 19 months.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    The Zune 30 was released November 2006 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune_30 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune_30). The iPhone was announced January 2007. It didn’t matter if they were “competitive”. The market had already spoken. People preferred the flash based smaller players to the larger players. MS went after the smallest part of the market.
peruvian 6y ago
Lol. I had a Zune HD. Opening the calculator app took half a minute... and that was pretty much the only app available. It was a cool device but there’s no surprise it got trampled by iPod Touch.
- winrid 6y ago
  Wow, you're only slightly exaggerating. I counted 11 seconds. https://youtu.be/iIj9W74Ju2E https://youtu.be/iIj9W74Ju2E
skinnymuch 6y ago
Loved the Zune. Not sure which I had. It wasn’t HD or anything though. It was also a launchpad for me to begin enjoying streaming and tracking things. I began tracking music listens with Last.fm and I used Microsoft’s music streaming service at the time. Usually (or always?) you’d download music onto your device and have to renew it every 30 days or so.

The zune of phones as in the best device made in both hardware and software quality but just too late to the game to get any traction?

by jjeaff 6y ago

The zune of phones as in the best device made in both hardware and software quality but just too late to the game to get any traction?

scarface74 6y ago

The Zune came out with a 30GB hard drive player when the world had moved on to flash based smaller players and three months before the iPhone The flash based Zunes similar to the Nanos came out at the same time as the second generation iPod Touch. The Zune HD came out with no apps around the end of 2009. Peak iPod - including the Touch - was 4th quarter 2008. The iPod was already losing steam and even then it was being propped up by the iPod Touch.

unfunco 6y ago
And it was brown.
- scarface74 6y ago
  <sarcasm> If you’re criticizing the Zune because it is brown, you’re a racist piece of crap. You should be Doxxed and reported to your employer </sarcasm> Yes this was a real argument made at the time.
neodymiumphish 6y ago
These are all true, but the Zune was still awesome... Video support, awesome customizations, and a very fun interface. I had all 3 of the Zunes you mentioned. My least favorite was the original, because the spinning disc would sometimes hit buffering issues, but the rest of the device family was practically perfect.
- scarface74 6y ago
  Perfect as long as you didn’t care about third party apps - which were very much a thing by 2009 when the Zune HD came out.
  - rapind 6y ago
    It might be a generational thing but I couldn't care less about third party apps. All I use: email, browser, maps, phone, txt, calendar, camera (non essential for me).
    - scarface74 6y ago
      No it’s not a generational thing - it’s you. That’s like the old Slashdot meme - “I haven’t owned a TV in 10 years Do people still watch TV?”. Seeing that my first computer was an Apple //e in 86, I’m definitely not a young buck.
      - nogabebop23 6y ago
        it's not just him, there is a sizeable contingent of people who focus on just these apps for all their uses, and I think it would be much bigger if mobile didn't promote separate apps for everything.
        jjeaff 6y ago
        Our customer base skews older and you wouldn't believe how many customer service tickets we field where they don't know what their apple account password is because they have literally never installed an app on their phone before. And these are people with brand new, most recent model iPhones that get a new one every few years.
013a 6y ago
The Zune 30, the first Zune, and the only 30gb Zune player you could be speaking about, was released in Nov 2005. By comparison, Apple's flash offerings in 2005 included the 1G Shuffle (1gb) and the 1G Nano (4gb). These were not large and complex enough devices to be considered competitors to the Zune 30; Apple's competitor to the Zune 30 was the 5G Classic, which came in 30/60/80gb hard drive sizes. I'm not sure how you got "three months before the iPhone" when the Zune 30 was released in Nov 2005 and the iPhone was released in June 2007. That's not 3 months, that's 19 months.
- scarface74 6y ago
  The Zune 30 was released November 2006 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune_30 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune_30). The iPhone was announced January 2007. It didn’t matter if they were “competitive”. The market had already spoken. People preferred the flash based smaller players to the larger players. MS went after the smallest part of the market.

peruvian 6y ago

Lol. I had a Zune HD. Opening the calculator app took half a minute... and that was pretty much the only app available. It was a cool device but there’s no surprise it got trampled by iPod Touch.

winrid 6y ago
Wow, you're only slightly exaggerating. I counted 11 seconds. https://youtu.be/iIj9W74Ju2E https://youtu.be/iIj9W74Ju2E

skinnymuch 6y ago

Loved the Zune. Not sure which I had. It wasn’t HD or anything though. It was also a launchpad for me to begin enjoying streaming and tracking things. I began tracking music listens with Last.fm and I used Microsoft’s music streaming service at the time. Usually (or always?) you’d download music onto your device and have to renew it every 30 days or so.