Comments on: Microsoft uses adware model to pay for Zune HD apps

By: Windows Phone 7: Microsoft’s third failed attempt to be Apple — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:16:42 +0000

[...] The inside track on Apple’s tablet: a history of tablet computing Microsoft uses adware model to pay for Zune HD apps [...]

By: Newton Poetry — Newton quote of the week: retail boxes

Newton Poetry — Newton quote of the week: retail boxes — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:40:18 +0000

[...] – Prince McLean at RoughlyDrafted Magazine. [...]

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:58:25 +0000

@daGUY

Thanks, I’ll check that out.

By: benlewis

benlewis — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:40:59 +0000

And yet…CNET fawns. Two short excerpts from their “review”:

“If you’ve never seen the mobile Web browser on an iPhone or iPod Touch, the Zune HD’s Web browser will knock your socks off. Its multitouch keyboard is more accurate and responsive than those on many touch-screen mobile phones we’ve tested…Unfortunately, after putting the Zune HD toe-to-toe with the third-generation Touch (32GB model), there’s no questioning the Safari browser’s all-around supremacy.”

Let me get this straight – if you’ve never used anything but a Zune (ah, the good old days of 95% Windows penetration), then the browser on the Zune will “knock your socks off”.

It gets better:

“The Microsoft Zune HD is a beautiful device–inside and out–that presents one of the first appealing and affordable alternatives to the Apple iPod Touch. Microsoft deserves praise for taking the Zune’s music and video experience beyond the standard set by Apple. What remains to be seen is whether people will value Microsoft’s premium media experience enough to resist the increasingly multipurpose appeal of the iPod.”

So, will you, the consumer, be wise enough to see the value in a “premium media experience” (whatever that is) as presented on a truly beautiful device, or will you be seduced by that dirty multipurpose appeal that Apple’s selling?

By: Argosy

Argosy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:34:53 +0000

It is truly amazing to me that MS is injecting “large” ads like this right out of the chute. The precedence this sets is sure to sour any one on purchasing the Zune HD! It seems like a bit of a nit pic, but this is first impression time. Do you really want every review site to write, ‘nice apps, but the ads suck’.

MS is not at the luxury to set expectations here. Customers’ expectations have already been set by the Apple App store, et al: $1-$2 or free maybe with some small banner ads. MS is already at a disadvantage by not launching with an App. store. This would seem to be a great time to bundle some really cool applications for free, not aggravate with lengthy ads.

At first you always give away the candy for free, then start “charging” after people become your customer. I can’t imagine a better way to kill any chance of the Zune HD succeeding.

Wow, just amazing….It’s as if MS doesn’t even want to succeed here.

By: daGUY

daGUY — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:24:44 +0000

FTA: “On the Zune HD, Microsoft is likely to scare away more customers with its heavy-handed advertising that it can possibly attract with a handful of free adware-supported games.”

Completely agreed. I can deal with text ads and other stuff that isn’t distracting, but ads that actually block what I’m trying to look at are unbearable. And this situation with the Zune is even worse than I thought, because I didn’t realize that the ads are shown *before* the app loads (not while it loads). 30 seconds to load a simple game? I’d rather not even bother.

By: daGUY

daGUY — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:14:34 +0000

@The Mad Hatter: there’s plenty of adblocking software for Safari too. I use Safari AdBlock + GlimmerBlocker, which takes care of pretty much any ad imaginable.

By: ChuckO

ChuckO — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:13:25 +0000

Interesting that with a successful example like Google’s low key ads Microsoft goes with big, ugly and annoying. Hard to imagine how it’s possible to make the wrong decisions so consistently.

By: string

string — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:36:05 +0000

I can’t believe that every time you want to play a game of chess you have to watch or at least run this ad. Amazing.

By: Berend Schotanus

Berend Schotanus — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:08:55 +0000

Nice explanation of the App Store model. Maybe it is because I follow your blog for some time that this seems quite natural to me and hard to understand why Microsoft follows a different direction. I remember you explained the potential of this model even before the App Store was announced.

Nice neutral tone about Microsoft as well.