MP3.com Founder Predicts Zune to be a Flop

MP3.com founder Micaheal Robertson recently wrote on his blog about the new Microsoft Zune MP3 Player: "At first glance the features seem compelling but my prediction is it will be the biggest flop of 2007 with less than 50,000 units sold worldwide."

He continued: "Now if you're thinking that zune sounds familiar it's because the press has been abuzz about an upcoming MP3 player from Microsoft called Zune. At first glance the features seem compelling but my prediction is it will be the biggest flop of 2007 with less than 50,000 units sold worldwide."

"In spite of the larger display and capacity the Zune is inferior... because it zunes your entire purchased music library. Microsoft made a corporate decision to abandon their previous technology called 'Plays for Sure' and turn it into 'Screwed for Sure.' Anyone who purchased music from Rhapsody, Napster, Buy.com, Wal-mart, BuyMusic, etc. will discover that music is unplayable,"

"The danger with DRM is that it gives corporations the power to change the rules of the game anytime they think it will benefit their bank account, even if that means zuning your music library. There's no better illustration of this than when the world's largest technology company curtails support of their OWN technology abandoning their hardware partners, music stores and most importantly customers they convinced to use Plays for Sure. Microsoft will surely claim that they'll continue to support Plays for Sure, but their actions speak louder than their words - it won't even play on their own music players! Plays for Sure is dead for sure and it's going to its grave with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of music fans’ digital music crammed into the coffin."

"Microsoft will likely spend nearly $100 million in marketing the Zune. The press will give them tens of millions of dollars in free marketing. In spite of this publicity the Zune will be an expensive failure for Microsoft because consumers aren't stupid. As the saying goes: Zune me once, shame on you. Zune me twice, shame on me."

You can read is article here.

But we feel that Microsoft really need to sort this DRM issue out. They need to communicate withh all parties and make sure that the Zune MP3 Player will be a commercial success. But all the marketing in the world won't encourage savvy mp3 buyers to purchase the Zune if the current DRM issues remain.