MARCH 16, 2011 • After four versions of its Zune media player in five years, Microsoft decided there will not be new hardware in the series moving forward. Instead, the company will follow a software-only strategy to migrate its Zune business to other platforms.
Impact: Microsoft has rarely proven to be a nimble innovator. With plenty of cash from its operating system and office suite business, what innovation the company could not buy, it could emulate quickly by heavy funding of competing products – Internet Explorer for example. Examples like the Xbox – that pushed the power envelope in consoles, and bet heavily on offering a robust console online service in Xbox Live – are pretty rare. The Zune, like Microsoft’s many smartphone attempts, really didn’t break new ground, or have the novel industrial design that makes Apple’s products a hot sell. With Microsoft management’s dislike of straying too far from its core Windows product code in developing device operating systems, a pure software strategy for Zune doesn’t seem like a winner to us.
