So Microsoft is attempting to use manufactured cool to co-opt the hipsters into achieving corporate goals?

Welcome to the Social!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/30/business/30vista.600.jpg

hmmm didn't get to many good comments.......

Hey Mr. Mazola! Glad to see you're still commenting on this site! Thanks for your comment, as always, they're interesting :)

I came up with an idea for Zcards....digital "business" cards stored on your Zune for sharing with new people you meet.

I wish Microsoft had some more interesting commercials...say...a club scene, or better yet, a coffee house.   Two people, sitting at opposite ends of the place listening to their Zune's.  The woman (yes, cliche) spots the guy with the Zune....he doesn't notice her...we cut to him looking at the track he is listening to when a message pops up notifying him of an incoming image file.   He accepts and then views it....it's a picture of the woman with her phone number on it.  He looks around, eyes her, smiles...she smiles back....we cut to them sitting together....fade to black....."Welcome to the social"

P.S.

Here is the original thread posed on Zuneboards.com

http://www.zuneboards.com/forum/index.php?topic=917.0

how about this for a commercial

a teenage girl is listening to her zune during school lunch and she gets a message to receive a photo from userx.

userx is the school janitor perv who sends her a homemade goatse shot of himself

welcom the social indeed

How about the janitor walks up to that same teenage girl and shows her that same picture on his iPod video?

iPorn, *Think different* indeed.

greg3d,

You just entered into the realm of "walks up to that same teenage girl and shows her that picture as a Polaroid." You can't point the finger at the iPod here.

There's a difference when random files can be sent anonymously to unsuspecting children from a car parked outside the playground or around the corner from the bus stop. "Oh cool, a photo."

Zune has no parental lock on the WiFi. There are dozens of ways to transfer porn and explicit music, Zune just makes it easier and anonymous. As a parent, I have issues with this.

Of course, if you lock the WiFi... why did you buy a Zune?

why wouldn't the zune software let you create a smart playlist that from a playlist?

i.e. criterias:

- playlist xxxxx

- 3 stars or above

2. if the album doesn't have album art, why wouldn't the software know to replace the album art img with the artist icon/art img?

3. i notice that zune doesn't support full specs unicode (i.e. chinese character, vietnamese)???

would that be good ideas?  or just too much?

thanks

It's an interesting conversation you all are having. the thing to remember is that you can control your wifi settings. you can be offline. you can block a user. you can reject a song/picture transfer. and you can choose to display what you're listening to/doing, or just choose to display "online"

Matty,  you already saw a post on how the Wifi/sending functions posted by the admin.

Khang:  You can create a smart playlist with any criteria you want.

In the left panel RIGHT click on the "playlist" heading, and select "create auto playlist"

If you all are thinking of adding more money to marketing, then that can only be a good thing. I've never heard of a marketing dept. complaining about having TOO MUCH money.

:)

The point is to make it look cool and have the marketing be quickly-recognizable. Even if I don't see an Apple logo, I immediately know an iPod billboard/commercial when I see one.

Plus, you'd be surprised how many people I meet who are unaware that the Zune has wifi. Seems like the features may need to be highlighted someplace.

Are you all still doing a Super Bowl ad?

http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6142094-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Another interesting article here

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/zunestory.asp

greg3d and admin,

My kids can also control WiFi settings. Fortunately I can get them an iPod without worrying, the same does not apply to Zune. Forgetting parental control was a careless mistake. On the iPod I can even lock my sons volume so he can't damage his ears... Young children aren't the wisest bunch of people.

Can I prevent my son from turning on WiFi? Say he goes to school and a friend wants to send him Eminem, Three 6 Mafia, etc. Say a kid wants to send my son some pornography. Can I prevent this? No.

My daughter wants to hear the new Avril Lavigne song - she can simply turn the WiFi back on. Now that WiFi is back on and now that she's made herself visible so that her friend can send the song, everything is enabled and she forgets about it. Now, the pervert in the car on the corner offers to send a photo from Sally_K. Of course, it's from Sally so my daughter accepts. Now my 11-year old daughter is exposed to a goatse photo?

Perhaps neither of you have a 15 year old boy or a 12 year old girl. They're going to turn the WiFi back on, forget about it and later accept that photo from Sally_K.

Now I have to tell my kids don't take rides or candy from strangers and don't accept squirted photos from perverts. Or Microsoft could just enable parental control...

Perhaps a bunch of 20 somethings don't think about these issues when designing a product?

I apologize for the rant, but you're making excuses and touting solutions that fail to correct the situation.

Matty, you comment on pretty much every post and I just want to say thanks. I (we) appreciate your perspective.

IMHO, after Christmas, the best marketing would be to make some exciting Zune announcements at CES. You need to create some more "positive buzz".

In addition, your Vista-preinstalled partners, such as Dell and HP, could be paid to include promotional Zune materials with their new computers. And, I imagine, you have ways of contacting Xbox users.

Advertising is just a small part of marketing, and not always the most effective part.

No offense, but I really don't like any of the commercials. Except maybe the concert one. Maybe I am just not hip or cool enough, but I want something flashy, upbeat, memorable, and actually shows off the product. Too many of the Zune commercials ( and Zunearts.net stuff ) is obscure and "hip/artsy". The average consumer isn't going to understand or care for it. You need short sentences, lots of verbs, and actually include your product in the commercial! Seeing a cookie being shared is great, but unless you show how that relates to your product, it isn't going to sell it!

btw, I actually like the cookie commercial , just think it needs to be extended to show how it relates to the zune.

and your zunearts stuff.... needs to be alittle less artsy and a little more homey.

Matty,

I understand your concerns.  With what you say, then I imagine your kids are not allowed on the internet...beit it at home, in school, or at a friends house.

You also somehow disable the mass storage ability of the iPod where you can just drag and drop content onti it when it is connected to any computer.  In which case, you do not allow them to use computers?

I teach my children from right and wrong, what I approve of and what I do not approve of.  

That said, you will never be able to control your children or their habits unless you lock them in a vacuum.  What you can do is educate them on the proper use of any product..be it iPod, Zune, Internet, Computer, television, Music CD, etc.  And then hope they use some of your advice.

I'm done with this conversation as it is pointless unless you accept the responsibility and confidence in your own parenting.

So can we essentially expect to see more TV spots? I don't watch the Super Bowl with much attention but if there are plans for a Zune ad, I would definately watch the whole thing just for that...yep...I'm that thirsty for Zune marketing...we need it!

the problem with the zune, is that it encourages strangers to share media somewhat anonymously.

some prankster can decide to send offensive content to anyone they find.

when using a computer to access the internet you have better control of filtering what you see.

the zune is like the opposite, it begs people to send/share stuff with each other.

I dont own a zune but how hard is it from someone to mask his/her identity by constantly

changing his userid/tag?

If these things ever catch on, I think a new medium for spam/sexual predation will have been

created

Perhaps now is the time to advertise the benefits of Zune's music subscription service, something that iTunes doesn't offer. (I would never buy an iPod because of this.)

From Reuters:

Apple's iTunes music sales collapses in H1: survey

Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:34 AM ET

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Sales at Apple's online music shop iTunes Music Store fell off a cliff in the first six months of 2006, according to a recent survey.

Since January 2006 the number of monthly iTunes transactions has declined 58 percent, while the average size per purchase declined by 17 percent, leading to a 65-percent overall drop in monthly iTunes revenue, U.S. market research group Forrester said in a survey among North American consumers.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-12-13T083401Z_01_L13130241_RTRUKOC_0_US-APPLE-ITUNES.xml

TomT,

You may want to follow up on that story. There's an article from Forrester with the headline, "iTunes sales are NOT plummeting! Press credibility, on the other hand..."

http://blogs.forrester.com/devicesmedia/2006/12/itunes_sales_ar.html

Reminds me of the recent misquote from BusinessWeek stating that "of 1,725 adults surveyed, 58% of those who already own an iPod or other MP3 player said they'd consider buying a Zune in the next 12 months" which is a very different number than the actual quote "58% of iPod owners planning another MP3 player purchase will consider Microsoft's Zune."

Let's do some research before we post...