The story of the Microsoft Zune, the would-be iPod killer

The Microsoft Zune is generally only a footnote in tech historical past. Microsoft spent years — and huge sums of cash — attempting to create a real competitor to Apple’s iPod, with out ever coming shut to really pulling it off. The Zune was just too little, too late.

You know what’s stunning concerning the Zune, although? Microsoft made lots of the precise bets with the Zune. The firm noticed — nicely forward of many of the remainder of the tech trade — that including social options may make its product stickier. It understood that these pocketable units would possibly ultimately be helpful for way more than simply music. And it had a bunch of interface design concepts which are nonetheless very current in our lives as we speak. The universe through which the Zune was a smash isn’t so distant (And there are many followers on this one, too.) Maybe if it hadn’t been brown, you realize?

For this episode of Version History, we inform the entire story of the unique Zune. (There’s a Zune HD episode to do right here in some unspecified time in the future – extra on that one other time.) David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Victoria Song flash again to the times of MSN Music, the Toshiba Gigabeat, and the Xbox 360, to try to work out the longer term Microsoft noticed coming. The hosts additionally speak by means of the stunning ambition behind Zune, which was meant to be a lot, way more than only a music participant. Microsoft even made new sorts of offers with the leisure trade, to assist its huge imaginative and prescient. And lastly, they talk about why the Zune didn’t work, and whether or not it ever even had an opportunity.

This is the fourth episode of Version History. If you wish to discover the present, there are three good locations to go:

Thanks to everybody who has already watched or listened to the present, and has despatched suggestions! We’re already placing on the following bunch of episodes, and wish to hear all the things you suppose we must be doing or not doing or doing otherwise. How many extra MP3 gamers deserve their very own episodes? You inform us. In the meantime, if you wish to know extra concerning the Zune story, listed here are some hyperlinks to get you began: