Zune Will Drive Girls Away, says Jobs

Newsweek has done a three page piece on an interview with Steve Jobs. You've probably heard about it already. Even considering the source, it increases my skepticism concerning the Zune's prospects.

Look at the design of a lot of consumer products—they're really complicated surfaces. We tried make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there.

It seems like you could just ship it at this point and improve things over time with firmware updates. That thinking might be considered to align with Agile principles, but I don't think it does. Ship an over-complicated product and it's already to late. I don't believe that release early and often means you get to skip user interface design.

It's not all happy though:

Do you think that it's fair to the customer that the songs they buy from Apple will only work on iTunes and the iPod? Well, they knew that all along.

I find that attitude ... upsetting. It will be interesting to see if pressure from the Zune can help encourage openness at Apple.

I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you're connected with about two feet of headphone cable.

Okay Zune, I'm good enough at chasing away girls all by my self, thank you.

Who "Launches" a Product That You Can't Buy Yet?

Microsoft does.

I'm sure they're not the only ones, but I'm in a mood today.

Now, I've shared my opinion on the Zune's chances already. The iPod is a tough nut to crack. John Gruber recently reported on Apple's "Showtime" event on Tuesday. From that entry:

• Apple claims 88 percent of non-bootleg music downloads in the U.S.
• 70 percent of 2007 model year cars sold in the U.S. have iPod connectivity built-in. Not “MP3-player” connectivity. iPod connectivity. Note to Jobs: Send nice Christmas presents to the engineers who came up with the proprietary iPod dock connector port.
• 450,000 Nike + iPod Sport Kits have been sold in fewer than 90 days. Not Nike + MP3 Player Sport Kits. Nike + iPod.
• The iTunes Store is the fifth-largest music reseller in the U.S., and expects to pass Amazon early next year, at which point they’ll trail only Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target.
• Apple has sold 1.5 billion total songs to date.

So, probably the only company that is afraid of the Zune is Creative.

To be fair, the Zune (somehow they've managed to come up with a name even sillier than iPod) -- the Zune will come to the table with a couple of nice new features. The wi-fi song sharing sounds nice and the bigger screen is certainly a plus. I find it interesting that these are two features that Apple is reluctant to add because of battery life concerns. It should be no suprise, therefore, that we've heard no mention of the battery life of the Zune.

I should be nicer to the Zune, I know. Competition for the iPod can only result in good things. It's just that ... well, Microsoft's actions tend to speak much louder than their words.