MP3 players were a revolution for music lovers. Granted, people have been able to take their favorite albums on the go for a long time thanks to Walkmans and Discmans, but MP3 players let listeners customize playlists with digital copies of songs. Apple cornered the market early with its iPods, but that didn’t stop other companies from providing alternatives, even when it was pointless.
The Zune, co-developed by Microsoft and Toshiba, was designed to challenge Apple’s iPod for the MP3 market crown. Microsoft was so confident in the Zune’s capabilities that the company championed it as the iPod killer. Over the course of several years, Microsoft released several generations of Zune, each with increasing hard disk space, and even included Xbox 360 integration and an HD LCD screen. However, just like the Kinect, nothing Microsoft did for the Zune worked.
Despite all of Microsoft’s efforts, Apple and its iPod kept a firm grasp on their overwhelming share of the market, mostly because Microsoft’s efforts didn’t amount to much. Timing was a huge factor, as the iPod had already solidified itself as a major player in the MP3 market, and Microsoft’s unclear advertising didn’t help much, as the Zune didn’t innovate much and was more or less an iPod with different branding. To the mainstream music-listening audience, the iPod was all they needed, and since many people already owned one, why would they buy a different MP3 player with the same features?
