UPDATE: You can read my responses to some of your comments, or continue commenting here.
Scoble has posted some comments about both iPods/MP3 players and MSN Music vs. iTunes.
His point seems to be that Microsoft and their partners have failed miserably when it comes to marketing the iPod’s competition.
I agree with a lot of what Scoble has said. Microsoft has made a great platform and several manufacturers have made superior products to Apple's (heck, I own an iRiver and a Rio Carbon). Unfortunately, most of these manufacturers simply don't have a clue about marketing these devices. And Microsoft isn't really helping.
Apple has it kind of easy here. They only have to promote one product. Microsoft has to promote a platform, more or less. Even if that platform is "Everything but Apple." And I don't know how that's going to work.
Right now Microsoft semi-promotes any player that plays WMA files. But here's the deal: No one cares about WMA files. At least not the average consumer.
Another big problem for you guys is branding. Everyone knows MP3, and everyone knows iPod. No one knows WMA. It's not even easy to say like MP3. And most of the public knows nothing about MP3 files, aside from the idea that they're downloaded from a computer magically onto their iPod.
Even if you convince the entire geek/enthusiast/"power use" population to use your products because of its technical superiority... that's a very small fraction of the population. The iPod has broken through to the masses. It's about time someone else did as well.
So how do they do it? Here are a few ideas:
1) Brand your platform. “WMA player” won’t work. “Plays For Sure” is crap. No one even knows what it means. You need something way better than that. Don’t make it complicated. Make it simple. Find some hugely marketable, one or two syllable, easily memorable brand for certain “approved” device. Make an easily identifiable logo/emblem/trademark that manufacturers can engrave in their products and market against the iPod.
2) Educate customers about your features. And not what formats your player supports. Market the greater battery life, inclusion of a microphone and FM tuner, auto-sync and auto-playlists, things like that.
3) Start a revolution. Take Apple to task for being so damned proprietary and not playing well with others. Take that brand you came up with in Step 1, and make it a symbol of freedom and choice. Freedom to buy your music from anywhere and play it anywhere. Convince your customers that with your product, they can buy music online and truly OWN it. Tell them that they can click one button and burn their music to a blank CD just like they’d buy from the store. Make a “switch” style advertisement for your fancy new brand. Have your personalities tell consumers that with Apple’s iPod, they were forced to buy music from Apple. Tell them that with , they can buy from countless stores .
4) Push the subscription idea. Do something with that fancy new Janus DRM technology. Do something like what Napster has talked about (and maybe implemented? I’m not sure). Make a service where for a monthly fee, users can download anything they want from Napster, and play it as long as they pay the fee. Market this to parents, too. Tell them, “Worried about your child getting in trouble for downloading illegal music? Sign up for Napster Premium (or MSN equivalent) and they can download all they want from your service! Without worrying about breaking the law.”
5) INNOVATE.
Give us something we don’t get with the current crop of iPods and iPod clones. A lot of the problem here comes from the music industry. But hear me out…
-Sharing. Make a player (or platform of players) that can talk to each other wirelessly, and share music. Bluetooth could work here. “That’s piracy!” you’ll undoubtedly say. I don’t care. That’s what the people want. Somehow, the industry is going to eventually have to figure this one out. Maybe you could work this with the subscription model. If I have a file that I got from my MSN/Napster subscription on my player, and I want to transfer it to my friend’s player who also has the same subscription… I can. Maybe that won’t work, but come on people… we NEED some new solutions to this problem.
-Connectivity. Make your players all include FM transmitters. Make a commercial where some attractive teen/college kids are having a party and there’s nothing good on the radio. One guy comes over and says, “here, just set it to 95.0” and puts his Rio Carbon 2 or whatever on top of the radio, and pushes “play.” Then have some Outkast music or something come on and all the kids are happy. “YOUR music, wherever YOU go.” Have it transmit RBDS data that shows the current artist and track name on the display, if the tuner supports it (most newer cars, etc.). Why no one has done this is beyond me. Pressure from Belkin?
-Cables suck. Has anyone tried integrating a tiny retractable USB cable, or flip-out style USB adapter, on the device itself? That way I can plug my player directly into my friend’s computer when I’m at his house to play some tunes of mine. Wireless could work here too.
-Extras. Make your players support downloadable games (MSN Mobile Games Store?). Give them the best text-to-speech engine you can find and let them read you your E-mail and RSS feeds.
-For Pete’s Sake… Make a Pocket PC with a god damn hard drive in it. Give it all the features of your other devices. Give it the same brand stamp as the players that are “just” players, but also make it your best PocketPC and/or SmartPhone as well. Let’s get this convergence thing moving along… I’m tired of carrying 2 or 3 devices everywhere. When the first iPod came out, I thought “Sweet, PDAs with those drives have got to be around the corner.” Now, years later, there still isn’t one. Why the hell not?
So what do you think? How do we displace the iPod? How DOES one make a better Walkman? Perhaps by accepting its place as a “better walkman” instead of a “Panasonic portable cassette player?”
Leave me your thoughts.