The Story
The folks at Gizmodo have proclaimed that the portable media player is dead. What’s taken its place? The smart portable media player, of course? The evidence for this is stuff we’ve seen before: Archos is going with Android for their media tablets, and the iPhone is killing the iPod. The other evidence is a piece of news that came in an interview with Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz. He said that the reason for really focusing on the Zune HD is that Microsoft did not want to launch two competing platforms for application development.
It’s All About The Platform
Mr. Seitz understands something fundamental: as a portable entertainment device, the Zune HD is largely going to be only as good as the platform on which it stands. Just think about what people use portable media players for. If you want to be entertained on the go, everything plays music and video these days, but as of right now, the iPod Touch is more or less the clear choice for games. Microsoft wants to shatter that concept. Part of running that sexy Tegra hardware under the hood is so developers can build compelling 3D games. We’ve already had a glimpse at what can be done.
And while I’m not all that excited about standalone portable media players in the long run, I’m not going to say that it’s a dead market. Sure, the smartphone wars may be the hotter platform battle right now, but Microsoft sees an opportunity to make cash, and if there’s one thing Microsoft is, it’s a successful business that can usually understand markets. So instead of just offering what looks like hands-down the best media experience on the go (OLED screen on the Zune HD, anybody), they’re providing that plus a whole platform. And trust me, it’s the platform that’s going to ultimately sell the product and keep it sustainable.
Does Zune HD Get It?
One problem the Zune HD could really face (in addition to not being a phone, since who wants to carry around multiple gadgets these days?) is that as it stands now, the platform isn’t open at all. Sure, it’ll probably be not too hard to get your own apps on there, but for these small-form devices, the real success is going to come from the app store. Unfortunately, it looks like Microsoft might have missed the chance to make their app store great. The current incarnation of the Zune Marketplace is not open, nor does it have some super restricted approval process. Rather, “Microsoft has handpicked third-party companies to code apps that will be offered for free in Marketplace.”
I can see why Microsoft is doing this. It wants to have a lot of quality applications on hand that it knows users will want. It also doesn’t want to have applications making their way into the proprietary app store which could get them in trouble (something involving porn, piracy, or anything else that’s objectionable). By just handpicking a few applications, Microsoft is sure that they won’t have to do a lot of review work, plus they’ll have a few applications to play with that at least in theory are pretty cool.
