Creative does Apple’s dirty work on Zune
Looking at the press reports and comments this morning you could be forgiven for thinking that Apple’s payoff to Creative had a hidden agenda. The new battle ground is hotting up.
Fat with its $100 million cheque from Apple, it seems that Creative is on the attack again – this time though its PR people have launched a full scale assault on one-time-partner, Microsoft.
In what must be the most amazing stroke of luck for Apple, it seems that the non-iPod player market is turning in on itself whilst Apple sits on the sidelines creaming in more sales and more plaudits.
Typical of this PR onslaught is this excerpt below from Information Week
Creative Technology has launched a portable media player that will compete against former partner Microsoft’s Zune.
Creative, based in Milpitas, Calif., released the Zen Vision W video, photo and music player on Thursday, the same day partner-turned-rival Microsoft unveiled details of Zune, which is expected to ship in time for the holiday season.
In announcing the new device, Creative played up its support for Amazon.com and the online retailer’s Unbox movie and video store, which would compete with Microsoft’s Zune online store. Amazon launched Unbox this week.
Creative’s Zen line of portable players run on Microsoft Windows Media, and can play any tune sold with the operating system’s copyright protection technology. Apple Computer uses its own digital rights management code in songs sold on the iTunes store. The tunes are not supported by Windows Media.
The Zen Vision W comes in two models, one with 30GBs of storage, which can carry up to 120 hours of video, and the other 60GBs. The devices cost $300 and $400, respectively. Microsoft has not released pricing for the Zune.
The marketing guys at Apple probably can’t believe their luck. To have two strong competitors fighting each other for ‘second place’ is likely to divide and waste their resources and lessen the impact of any marketing campaigns – splitting and confusing the messages to their target audiences.
Better still neither product is able to touch the newest Apple iPod’s in terms of specification or ‘cool’ appeal.
At the same time Creative has now clearly ‘nailed its mast’ to Amazon, which could spell more trouble for Microsoft when it comes to promoting their product through the Amazon site, with which it competes for downloads.
What seems to be a good idea for Creative in the short term, will probably end up benefiting Apple significantly more in the longer term – Bill Gates must be fuming.