to zune, or not to
Dare Obasanjo has put together his wishlist for Zune in 2007. And asks what would make readers switch from iPod to Zune.
My answer is: I cannot think of anything.
Let me explain: Microsoft's track record in handling of Music is so bad that I would not want to make purchases of DRMed songs from them. No matter what form and feature factor they put into the Zune, I would not want one.
Just one example: Zune puts DRM on shared files no matter what the original format was. So it inhibits me from sharing free files, where no legal boundaries apply, with other Zune users. As to why they are doing this, I can only speculate:
- Zune users are not extected to listen to free music.
- Microsoft did not think that people owning free music is a target for their product.
- Microsoft just did not think about it.
- The lawyers at Microsoft enforced DRM on shared files, since otherwise they'd become a prime target for the music industry
- Microsoft thinks it will earn more money when people are led to believe they need to buy all music at their store.