14 DAY TRIAL // On September 5 Apple slapped Microsoft with a whole lot of pain including the fresh releases of iPod Nano, Classic and Touch, the $200 cut price for the 8GB iPhone and the introduction of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Just two months shy of celebrating the one year anniversary of the Zune digital media player, the Redmond company got pushed to the background by the new line-up of Apple offerings. And the worse part about it is that Microsoft continues to be latent and dormant while Apple has obviously taken the edge.
The Cupertino based company has revamped the iPod nano with video playback and a new design including a two-inch display with 204 pixels per inch. "We've taken the most popular music player in the world and added stunning video playback just in time for the holiday season," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The iPod nano just keeps getting better and better with each new generation."
Users of iPod classic will be able to store no less than 40,000 songs on the new 160GB model. "The first iPod put 1,000 songs in your pocket-this new iPod classic can put 40,000 songs in your pocket," said Jobs. "With a thinner, all-metal enclosure and an enhanced user interface, the iPod classic is ideal for people who want to hold everything on their iPod."
And the new iPod touch, bringing the iPhone design to the iPod, together with the multi-touch user interface, Safari, Cover Flow and Wi-Fi wireless networking just put Apple firmly on the driver's seat on the digital media player market and simultaneously making Microsoft just one of the crowd. "The iPod touch is a landmark iPod, ushering in a whole new generation of features based on its revolutionary multi-touch interface and built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking," Jobs added.
And although Zune was the first digital media player with wireless capabilities, Apple beat Microsoft to the market with the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. And additionally, the Cupertino-based company killed the 4GB iPhone model, while dropping the price for the 8GB variant to $399 from $599.
But fear not, anticipating the new offerings from Apple, Microsoft did react and in fact did it ahead of time. Of course that the insignificant Zune price drop is by no means connected with Apple. No, not even in the least!
"We're dropping the suggested retail price for Zune to $199. It's part of the normal product lifecycle, something we've had on the books for months. We just got some research back and customer satisfaction with the 30GB device is really high (around 94%) and we expect even more consumers will now want to discover the Zune experience at the new lower price," revealed Microsoft's Cesar Menendez.
To summarize, Apple just evolved the iPod-iPhone revolution while Microsoft offered a whole $50 price cut and is apparently working on Zune version 2 (80 GB) and Zune Flash (8 and 4 GB). Too little, too late!