What Today's Zune Announcements Really Mean - The Platform is DOA

The "Road Aheading" of Zune began today. Those who remember 95 understand the imagery. Those who don't will probably buy a Zune.

Twould be silly for me to think I'm the only blog you read so here are my favorite news points:

• CrunchGear writes of a DRM so brutal that is kills whatever hopes I had of Zune as viral Podcast recommendation machine.
• Podcasting News points out the same no Podcasting support that I've been screaming about for some time now. Either our firmware friend is indeed a cruel joke - or Microsoft just doesn't care to mention that whole Podcasting thing. Either way, bad news.
• Engadget offers an interview with Zune's J Allard that proves what I've been saying all along: Microsoft has some serious strategy behind this thing past the "we gotta beat iPod" meme. The problem is, the Zune as "platform" strategy. The most "telling" quote:

And you know, Zune is really about music, it's our deep dive with music first and foremost.

• Finally, I offer our friends over at Zune Insider who give us a just the facts approach to what happened today that confirms our suspicion that the FM transmitter idea was too good to be true.

Now remember, it is all about the music, which is why this quote from the Allard interview is so important:

The video resolution is 320 x 240, QVGA resolution. And so we'll do H.264 playback as well, because there's a lot of content out on the web for video iPods. Lots of DVD ripping software out there that encodes to those formats, so the most popular formats out there, whether it's MPEG-4 or H.264, we'll support those. So, we really are taking a relatively agnostic approach to different formats.

If that doesn't sound like a product that is all about the music, I don't know what sounds like a product that is all about the music.

Actually, the product sounds like something that is trying to be all things to all people and is simply turning out to be nothing to nobody.

Chris Pirillo is right, the product not only doesn't make sense for the average user, it doesn't even make sense for Microsoft.

There are those who will quote back to me my favorite phrase: to get to rev. 2, you have to have rev. 1.

But, sometimes, rev. 1 reveals that there is no need or reason for a rev. 2.

I'm not feeling the (Zune) luv right now.

Is anyone out there, not employed by Microsoft, feeling the (Zune) luv?

Do we really need/want a "platform" that is all about the music that taunts you with "music sharing" but prevents you from doing it, spends more time making sure I can use a ripped DVD (while introducing the silliest DRM strategy yet) while telling me that it is all about the music? Do you want a platform for digital media that doesn't look like it's going to work with the Microsoft Media Center you trusted enough to drop some serious coin on?

Is there a Microsoft "partner" out there who has any idea what wagon they should jump on: Plays for Sure, WMA/WMV DRM, Zune, or whatever comes next?

Is anyone feeling the (Zune) luv?

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