Found: Another iPod Casualty
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News Commentary. The strangest gear turns up on retailers' shelves. |
Yesterday, I romped through the local Fry's Electronics, on one of my shopping scoutings. Every few weeks, I shop the shoppers and shopping displays at local computer and gadget retailers, just to see what's displayed how and who's buying what. I was surprised to see this Dell DJ on a shelf, presumably for sale but with no listed price.
Dell DJ is one of the many music players laid low by Apple, and perhaps by Microsoft. Apple's iPod/iTunes success—and DJ's drab industrial design—clubbed Dell sales. Microsoft doomed the device, too. Zune took PlaysForSure out back and shot it in the head. PlaysForSure didn't, so Microsoft was somewhat merciful in delivering a quick death. But music hardware and service partners languished longer, while Microsoft shifted focus to Zune.
Dell pulled the plug on DJ's respirator in February 2006, while flashed-based DJ Ditty held on for about another six months. Microsoft launched Zune a few months later, in November 2006. PlaysForSure got new life, in name only, as part of Windows Vista in December 2007.
Zune is a pretty good music player, and Zune Marketplace 2.5 is even better. But there is a lesson Microsoft partners should learn from PlaysForSure's demise and Zune's rise. Microsoft partners better than any other company, as long as it sticks to the program. Microsoft has a long history of suddenly changing course midstream to catch a competitor. Some partners are sure to fall overboard when the good ship Microsoft pitches for the course change.
Right now, Microsoft's compass and sextant are charting a rough course against Web 2.0 platform competitors like Google. Partners should be cautious. Like PlaysForSure, today's big partner platform is tomorrow's scrap wood. Over the week's ahead, I'll identify some of the areas of partner promise or peril.
As for the DJ spotted yesterday, old inventory lives on until the retail channel clears it away. Sometimes, the process is brutally painful. At the same Fry's, I also spied a huge display of HD DVD movies, discounted to $9.99. Sale price is a painful reminder to HD DVD player owners that they picked the wrong high-definition format. The same store offered Xbox 360 HD DVD drives for fifty bucks. Ouch.
I waited on buying a high-definition player until there was a declared format winner. In February, I spent $400 on a PlayStation 3, which has got one of the best Blu-ray players on the market, and it gets better with each PS3 update. Strangely, no one in my family has ever played a game on that PS3. We only use it for watching DVD and Blu-ray movies. But the Wii is used nearly every day.
Comments (7)
I agree...the zune is pretty darn good and a joy to use. Add that to the great experience of my Vista Ultimate and its streaming to my XBOX 360 via Media Center and I am very happy with Microsoft products.
Posted by Brian | June 30, 2008 7:34 AM
I spoke to an A/V retailer in Australia over the weekend who said that Blu-ray equipment is not an easy sell here because of the new generation of region codes and coding that Sony has introduced.
Pretty much every other DVD player in Australia is region-free, and so HD-DVD would have made greater inroads.
Sony's heavy-handedness on the region issue may cost it a foothold in a number of markets. It's bad enough having PCs and laptops with region-restricted drives, without Blu-ray complications.
Posted by Mike | June 30, 2008 10:12 AM
What about the Creative Zen? Creative actually made the player for Dell. Creative pioneered the mp3 player and invented the iPod interface, which Apple stole and now Creative doesn't get any recognition.
The Creative ZEN is better than the iPod, as it offers more for less. Look for the new ZEN X-FI/W-FI player in July.
Posted by Davin Peterson | June 30, 2008 10:27 AM
@Davin Peterson:
reach back a little further. Rio-Sonicblue paved the way for all these little devices we walk around with. They staved off a lawsuit by the RIAA who claimed mp3 players would encourage copyright infringement.
Al laughs at folks who think the ipod is the best product on the market. It isn't & never was. Apple had the marketing & iTunes, but the product was subpar compared to the competition.
Posted by Al | June 30, 2008 12:08 PM
I love my Zune. After owning 3 ipods, I was ready for something better. And ZUNE is better.
Posted by 9 | June 30, 2008 3:40 PM
Love those Zunes while you can. When Ballmer gets the boot and the new CEO cleans house, all of this money-losing crappola will be gone, along with the likes of Bach, Ozzie, etc.
You will whine and cry, MSFT investors will cheer.
Posted by Gerald | June 30, 2008 4:49 PM
@Al:
Actually, you are mistaken....the very first mp3 player was created by a Korean company called SaeHan Information Systems and imported by Eiger Labs, Inc. It was called the MPMan F10. The Rio-Diamond PMP300 - which is the Rio device you are referring to, and which won notoriety as a role player in the RIAA lawsuit of the first, illegal, Napster, was the 2nd mp3 player made...although the 1st made in the US. The MPMan F10 was created in '98, the PMP300 in '99.
As to the Dell Digital Jukebox, Microsoft didn't kill it, and PlaysForSure didn't either. Michael Dell killed it. Of course, Apple played a hand in it's demise. The Dell DJ was one of the first DAP's (Digital Audio Players) marketed that targeted the high costs of the iPod, iriver, and other HDD DAP's out at the time.
Dell's approach was to offer a device stripped of most features except for the minimum required, and sell them to the masses for up to $200 less than comparible capacity DAP's sold by Apple. The approach was to directly compete with Apple: the larger capacity Dell DJ against the iPod, the 5GB micro-HDD Pocket DJ against the iPod Mini, and the flash memory DJ Ditty against the iPod Shuffle. All DJ's undercut the iPod's prices, and offered at least the same features (the larger DJ offered a FM tuner with a wired remote).
The DJ's experienced a modest degree of market success, but never ammounted to more than a niche device, as Dell never invested the marketing time and attention to the device to compete on a grand scale with Apple. There was even plans for a third generation of the device, but ultimately Dell discontinued the HDD models in early '06, and then the flash Ditty by the start of '07. This was before the news of the Zune, or of Microsoft ending support for the PlaysForSure DMR format.
Posted by Lacene | July 10, 2008 8:09 PM