Kristian's Microsoft Zune mystery shopping experience at The Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo, CA on Tuesday November 3rd, 2009 from 3-5PM.
Here are some notes.
* This is only the second Microsoft Store to open in the country. The first store opened in Scottsdale, AZ just one week earlier, on October 22, 2009. The Mission Viejo store opened on October 29, 2009. Video below from store opening.
o http://video.ocregister.com/m/27147535/why-were-people-really-in-the-microsoft-store-opening-line.htm
* When I asked the first salesperson for help deciding between iPod or Zune, he gave me lots of reasons to pick Zune. I spoke with almost ten employees before I left. Here are the pros and cons I surmised.
o Pros
+ 33 hour battery life due to OLED screen technology (not LCD)
+ Similarly priced with iPod Touch 16gb (~$219) and 32gb models (~$289)
+ Zune Marketplace is similar to iTunes Store
# Can buy products, music, audiobooks, videos (rent too), podcasts (usually free), apps (only eight right now), or utilize the social networking feature to share musical tastes with friends.
# 1200 Zune points = $15
# Typical costs for songs are 79 points, movie rentals in Standard Definition (SD) are 400, movies rentals in High Definition (HD) are 480, movie purchases in SD are 1200, movies purchases in SD are 1600, etc. [note the versioning tactics here]
# The model for music purchases is a hybrid of subscription and ownership. The Zune Pass is $15 to purchase and allows you listen to any song in the Zune library, but the files are DRM-protected. At the end of each month, you get to pick ten songs that you like and want to own forever, which are not DRM-protected. You can buy additional songs with more Zune points if you like, or wait until the next month to get ten more new songs on your monthly subscription.
# The Zune HD allows output to a TV at 720p resolution, as compared with the iPod at 480p resolution (need to verify this claim)
+ The real focus is on the Zune Marketplace
+ Ability to tailor custom playlists to your musical tastes, leveraging the database of similar artists provided by GraceNote licensing. This is similar to iTunes "Genius Mixes" and is called "Zune MixView".
+ Share and update music collection over integrated WiFi. It will even wake-up your device for you if it is asleep.
o Cons
+ Zune software only runs on Windows, so Mac users (or Linux/Unix/etc) are out of luck. As a comparison, iTunes officially runs on both Apple and Microsoft operating systems (and can work on Linux if hacked).
+ Very few apps available, unlike the App Store where hundreds of apps exist, many by third-party developers.
+ No Bluetooth capability, unlike the latest iPod Touch which has this feature.
* At the very back of the store, a training session is run every hour on various topics, utilizing a 100+ inch touch screen display. I attended the 4PM showing titled "Zune HD: Music and Magic" which was run by one staff member. No one else was in attendance, though there were 50 or so people in the store.
Here are some other interesting things to note about the store itself.
* An unmet need of many Windows users is fixing PC problems. The Microsoft Store offers the "Answer Desk" service, similar to the Apple Store's Genius Bar. Here you get free help for 15-20 minutes, after which you can pay for various services if you like, or purchase a yearly subscription which entitles you to one hour of training per week! I can see this service utilized by nearly any PC owner, even if they only utilize the free training. This will bring them into the store and keep them eyeing the latest offerings from Microsoft. The store is quite entrancing because there are screens on various walls, with many teens and preteens playing the latest video games and just hanging out. One staff member told me the Personal Training service is $100 / year, but the booklet I was handed out claims to be $149 / year or $49 per hour on an one-time basis.
* Similar to the Apple Store, large LCD displays flaunt the latest Microsoft Technologies running on the latest hardware. They offer a variety of stations, even what looked like a "kids station", where some mothers were sitting with their children and playing games.
* There are two Microsoft Surface devices located in the store, which cost about $15,000 each, but look really cool. I had only ever seen these demonstrated on youtube, but they do look very cool indeed. It looked like someone was playing chess on it when I walked by one of them.
The Apple Store was closed for renovations and thus was unable to comment on the Microsoft Store opening...
