Missing the point
I read Robert Scoble's post last week comparing the iPod to Zune. If nothing else, I usually find something interesting or thought provoking in Robert's posts. In this one, I found it interesting that his conclusion is that when compared to an iPod, "the Zune abjectly fails." The reason for this failure, in his opinion, is that there is no killer feature to differentiate Zune from the iPod.
I could critique and defend each of the points Robert made. But, it occurred to me that Robert is missing the point of Zune. There is no one magic bullet that is going to make Zune (or any other player for that matter) suddenly topple the iPod. What will be successful is a product that excels at the fundamentals while adding new features only when it makes sense for the user. Sure, software matters. Integration matters. Design matters. And, marketing matters. As Robert points out, it is the little things that matter and which will lead to long term success.
Digging a little deeper, the reason I think we'll be successful is that we focused on the essentials and I think we got the details right. Zune only does 5 things. It is first and foremost a great music player. Before we can even think about any other features, it had to be best in class in terms of playing back music. We thought long and hard about better ways to find and play your music.
The user first notices this when they use the UI to navigate to their tracks. Unlike the iPod, which is hierarchical and inflexible, Zune allows you to make selections by navigating up and down as well as left and right. This means that you don't have to go all the way back to the main menu to change your selections. Instead, you can go to the previous choices by simply selecting right or left. This is far quicker (and intuitive in my opinion) than other methods of navigation. Robert criticizes the lack of a scroll wheel, but an actuated button it necessary to have when navigation on two axis. It does have advantages, too. For example, scrolling a long list on an iPod can be tedious. Zune has smart scroll functionality where all you have to do is hold the button down to scroll through long lists. Once you find the song you are looking for and you press play, we use the gorgeous screen to display the album art. These are the little details that matter to the user. If I told you I could make it easier to find and play your music and make it more enjoyable by showing you big bright album art, would you find that compelling? Of course you would.
In each of the core scenarios, we didn't try to boil the ocean. Instead, we thought of cool improvements. In video and slideshow modes, we automatically turn the screen sideways and controls become contextual. In the radio (a feature iPod doesn't have by the way), we have one push preset and seeking. And, yes we have sharing. We added a feature that we think users will think it cool. Music was meant to be shared and talked about. We thought that having to put someone else's earbuds in your ears was a bad way to do it (and kind of gross). Is this the "killer feature" Robert wants to see? Who knows. It is pretty cool though.
Robert does talk a lot about the upgradeability of Zune. In some ways he hints that that is the killer feature. He might be right. Anyone who's tried to upgrade their player in the past would probably agree it is difficult at best and a disaster at worst. The upgrade feature is not only seamless, but practical. The thing about it is that now that it is painless, we can add features in the future and the experience of getting them will be painless. You want a podcasting client, not a problem. You want a video-cast system, we can do that. You want something we haven't even thought about, we can probably do that too. The point is that we do the basic things really, really well and if we need to add something we can.
Let me say this one more time. If anyone thinks they are going to walk in and immediately take 51% marketshare from Apple, they are sorely mistaken. The iPod is a great product (I own 5 of them). However, we're kidding ourselves if we say that there isn't room to improve. Robert talks about an offsite where he saw Dave (Zunster) present. I hosted that offsite (and if you're reading Robert, I'm a little miffed you don't remember getting the invite from me). We learned (and continue to learn) from the competition. That's where Zune gets it right; focus on the key scenarios, innovate where it makes sense for the users, and upgrade if necessary. That is going to be the key to success.
PS - sharing actually is a killer feature.
I could critique and defend each of the points Robert made. But, it occurred to me that Robert is missing the point of Zune. There is no one magic bullet that is going to make Zune (or any other player for that matter) suddenly topple the iPod. What will be successful is a product that excels at the fundamentals while adding new features only when it makes sense for the user. Sure, software matters. Integration matters. Design matters. And, marketing matters. As Robert points out, it is the little things that matter and which will lead to long term success.
Digging a little deeper, the reason I think we'll be successful is that we focused on the essentials and I think we got the details right. Zune only does 5 things. It is first and foremost a great music player. Before we can even think about any other features, it had to be best in class in terms of playing back music. We thought long and hard about better ways to find and play your music.
The user first notices this when they use the UI to navigate to their tracks. Unlike the iPod, which is hierarchical and inflexible, Zune allows you to make selections by navigating up and down as well as left and right. This means that you don't have to go all the way back to the main menu to change your selections. Instead, you can go to the previous choices by simply selecting right or left. This is far quicker (and intuitive in my opinion) than other methods of navigation. Robert criticizes the lack of a scroll wheel, but an actuated button it necessary to have when navigation on two axis. It does have advantages, too. For example, scrolling a long list on an iPod can be tedious. Zune has smart scroll functionality where all you have to do is hold the button down to scroll through long lists. Once you find the song you are looking for and you press play, we use the gorgeous screen to display the album art. These are the little details that matter to the user. If I told you I could make it easier to find and play your music and make it more enjoyable by showing you big bright album art, would you find that compelling? Of course you would.
In each of the core scenarios, we didn't try to boil the ocean. Instead, we thought of cool improvements. In video and slideshow modes, we automatically turn the screen sideways and controls become contextual. In the radio (a feature iPod doesn't have by the way), we have one push preset and seeking. And, yes we have sharing. We added a feature that we think users will think it cool. Music was meant to be shared and talked about. We thought that having to put someone else's earbuds in your ears was a bad way to do it (and kind of gross). Is this the "killer feature" Robert wants to see? Who knows. It is pretty cool though.
Robert does talk a lot about the upgradeability of Zune. In some ways he hints that that is the killer feature. He might be right. Anyone who's tried to upgrade their player in the past would probably agree it is difficult at best and a disaster at worst. The upgrade feature is not only seamless, but practical. The thing about it is that now that it is painless, we can add features in the future and the experience of getting them will be painless. You want a podcasting client, not a problem. You want a video-cast system, we can do that. You want something we haven't even thought about, we can probably do that too. The point is that we do the basic things really, really well and if we need to add something we can.
Let me say this one more time. If anyone thinks they are going to walk in and immediately take 51% marketshare from Apple, they are sorely mistaken. The iPod is a great product (I own 5 of them). However, we're kidding ourselves if we say that there isn't room to improve. Robert talks about an offsite where he saw Dave (Zunster) present. I hosted that offsite (and if you're reading Robert, I'm a little miffed you don't remember getting the invite from me). We learned (and continue to learn) from the competition. That's where Zune gets it right; focus on the key scenarios, innovate where it makes sense for the users, and upgrade if necessary. That is going to be the key to success.
PS - sharing actually is a killer feature.
posted by billwitt at 8:12 PM
17 Comments:
The today's engadget post is very useful, as it has a close up through the whole video on the screen. The fast scrolling and how useful the 4 directions pad is, can be seen there in the best possible way. The transition effects are also very nice.
I believe Zune can be unbeatable if it implements the Wifi feature right. Just sharing in the Zune 2 Zune way is not enough. PC sync and podcasting must be added soon.
But with easy firmaware updates this can be done in the future.
-- Zune-Online.com Share your Zune experience!
Thanks Bill,
That's the best description of smart-scrolling that I've seen. It wasn't clear from the earlier videos of the UI.
Harvey
http://www.zunerama.com
Hello Bill,
I think you guys have done things right till now. From what I have read and seen the hardware and software seems right. Now its time to get the communication right too. I think you will agree when I say that Apple is VERY GOOD at communication. They in fact perfected it. I really hope you guys have taken that into consideration.
By the way I have decided upon the Brown color.
Rohit
Great write up and I agree 100%. I think too many people are caught up in the Zune vs. iPod debate when there is a better one: Which device best serves your multimedia needs?
It reminds me of doing commerical software. As a developer I constantly have to remind sales/marketing that it's not about stacking up on a feature chart, it's about providing a better experience for the actual person using the software. I think it rocks that the Zune team has focused on us, the users, and not on being able to out feature the iPod.
The iPod pulled ahead for a few very simple reasons: it was well designed, it was mass marketed and it was made easy to use for the average user. I actually owned two MP3 players before the iPod was even a rumor and tried my hardest to get people excited about them but they just didn't get it until Apple showed them.
Now with the Zune, and its marketing muscle, people will finally realize that the iPod doesn't equal the only DAP option. They'll see Zune products in Target, they'll hear the reviews, they'll understand they have options.
Of course there is the hope that the 360 and Zune won't just be two devices that can connect but two devices that work synergisticly (hmm, should spell check that) with Marketplace to create this media ecosystem. In that regard the 360 could help slingshot the Zune into the double-diget market share zone.
P.S. Time to put my nerd hat on, but has anyone noticed an XYZ pattern here? X for Xbox, Z for Zune and the Y is like a funnel, joining both devices into something something greater than either? OK, I've just out-geeked myself, I'll stop now.
I agree that is shouldn't be an ipod vs zune debate. However, there are some major things that need to be in place. For example, I think one of the little things is being able to make and save playlists on your device. It seems that the quicklist ability is not fully developed. It appears that it doesn't allow you to actually save your quicklists. So, do they dissappear when you shut your device off. This is one of the little things that people expect to be done right. But, we can sit here and nitpick the device to death. It's always going to be missing something and there's always going to be room for improvement. I just hope the Zune community at large is listened to when it comes time to make these all important software upgrades.
great rant man. I think the thing that differentiates the Zune and the iPod is the upgradability. I know that MS (specifically those in the xbox/zune team) will have important updates within the first 6 months (like the 360) and what few features the Zune doesn't have (podcasting/videocasting, avi codec decorder, etc.) will be fixed or added later on. Can't wait for the 14th!.
Thanks for the info on how the Zune UI improves useability vs Ipod. I hope to demo smart scrolling when the Zune mays it out to stores later this month. I don't think song sharing will be a killer feature in the beginning.
Is it easy or possible to delete songs from Zune. I would love to something like right click to delete this song capability.
Sportsunit - I think you'll be surprised when you use the device. It is very easy to make a playlist on the device and it is persistant. In fact, the twist UI makes is very fast to create your playlist since you don't always have to jump out of where you are and go back to the main menu.