Zune to challenge iPod ... 2.3% to 70% .... I wonder!

Will anyone finally challenge Apple’s iPod supremacy in the digital music/video player domain?

The heavy weights already in the market, for several years, like Sony, Sansa and Creative Technologies have not managed to even get close. In fact, estimates put their and every other competitor’s total share at 30 percent; obviously that means Apple has the market sewn up with a commanding, frightening 70 percent.

Even in popular culture, people stopped calling it an MP3 player, digital music player or whatever as it’s becoming a multi-tasking gadget capable of music, video and games-playing!

It’s so much simpler to just call it an iPod. Anyone with an earphone is asked the question “so you’ve got an iPod,” taking the time to explain it’s actually a Sony is useless!

Microsoft however, think there’s still a chance and they believe you’ve got to start somewhere to challenge a market leader.

Such a strange, and refreshing, attitude to come from the undisputed software giant who is bent on squashing competitors before they manage to eat into its 90-something percent of the operating systems and desktop software applications markets!

So, does Apple have much to worry about with Microsoft’s Zune standard? Well, the latest news that Microsoft is to sell its 1 millionth Zune unit can be looked at from two angles- the half empty or half full approach.

On the one hand, it’s a laughable amount that gives Microsoft no more than 2.3 percent of the total global market for digital media players, compared to Apple’s mammoth 70 percent. Apple, which launched its iPod music player in October 2001, has sold 100 million of the music players.

But, on the other hand it’s got impressive technology, has one of the fastest-growing user bases among Apple’s competitors and has a massive giant behind it. Do you really think Microsoft will stop at anything?

Look at what Microsoft did in the games console market, when it’s Xbox challenged Sony’s supremacy with PSone and PS2, and Nintendo’s ‘niche’ profitable gap. It turned that industry upside down, losing money (still losing five years later), but gaining market position and now boasting new generation console leadership with the XBox 360 selling more than Sony’s PS3 so far!

So, maybe the Zune is the only real candidate for the ‘iPod Killer’ tag the press like to use generously with competing devices which have all proven inferior to Apple’s wonder device.

It’s not the technical supremacy of the iPod models, as much as it’s the way Apple blends everything together: looks, simple functionality, prestige pricing, strong availability and distribution, coolness and ‘cultural engineering”, so to speak!

In any case, Microsoft is still ranked 4th, behind SanDisk who has 11.7 percent, and Creative with 4 percent. Both companies seem content with this profitable yet small share of the market. There seems to be a ‘truce’ or some kind of submissive balance.

Well, Microsoft isn’t going to be submissive, so watch closely and see how it will propel Zune even further.

zanasser@gmail.com

The latest challenge: "Information Explosion"

As if there weren't enough challenges already for network administrators, a recent report has warned of Data Explosion.

Don't be shocked, it's not a terror-related concept, it's just a term to refer to the massive amounts of data being produced daily by users worldwide which is being 'stock-piled' in servers eating up billions of gigabytes.

The usual suspects, International Data Corp. (IDC) have come up with this new pressing issue as part of a study called The expanding digital universe, which found the information stored on disk arrays has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 60 percent over the last decade and that growth rate is predicted to be maintained through to 2010.

The amount of information created, stored and replicated in 2006 has been calculated by the study to be 161 billion gigabytes - equivalent to three million times the information in all books ever written. That figure is expected to reach 988 billion gigabytes by 2010.

What this means is that the Internet authorities, or whoever is responsible for its servers must find solutions, or space for all this data.

But, as it seems, this is a multi-layered problem, as businesses also face this information explosion over the next three years as the number of digital images, email inboxes and broadband connections doubles.

The user-generated revolution seems to be an additional driving force behind this explosion. Apart from the challenge of storage, there are issues of structuring this glut of information. The research predicts almost 90 percent of data will be unstructured, compared to around 70 percent historically.

Then, of course, there are environmental issues related to increased power requirements, cooling equipment, personnel and data security challenges at all levels.

As everyone and everything goes digital, terabytes are being gobbled up. For example, the Information Heritage Initiative in the US has donated $1m in equipment, products and services to the US Smithsonian Institution's programme to digitize its collections. This donation includes 100 terabytes of archival storage capacity and an EMC Centera content storage system.

So you can imagine how many governmental and business organizations around the world are doing the same!

Who would have thought that the information age would cause so much trouble?

zanasser@gmail.com

Friendship 2.0

Yes, it's another one of those otherwise normal terms, which become 'new Internet age' once you add the '2.0' suffix. But, actually, it's truly remarkable how radically different friendships have become because of the Internet; and with the latest social networking websites there's clearly a major shift in the way we deal with people who we would previously call friends without much to show for in terms of keeping in contact or declaring our friendship.

Allow me to simplify this idea. In high school, I had a friend who moved to Canada after graduation and I haven't seen him for over a decade. Apparently, he's a Facebook user and after conducting a search he figured out I was on Facebook too, and he sent me 'an invitation' to join his list of friends.

Let's take a look closely at what's happening here. First, he has declared to me that he still regards me as a friend, then he adds me to a publicly accessible list of friends thereby telling them and the rest of the world that I am his friend, and encouraging some of them to be my friends too.

All of this by just spending a few minutes in front of a PC, without the hassle of searching for my phone number or email, without calling me, without having to explain at length that he's still my friend and that we must stay in touch and so on.

Amazing! I am startled by Facebook, where I now have a list of friends most of whom I have not seen for years (therefore had no contact with anymore) or whom I met once or twice but apparently left an impression!

And you sprinkle some family members and friends of friends onto this list and you end up with a proud, long list of Facebook friends to show the world!

Next, you start being 'poked' by these friends, or they 'write a message on your wall'. It's so easy and effortless that it sucks you in, and you actually answer. Short messages coming in, mean you provide short, easy to produce answers…. No pressure!

What's more, you would have never called this person to ask "how have you been?", or "how's you day?", and just looking at a friend's Facebook page and witnessing his/her recent activity- which is detailed, such as recent communications with other friends or invitations sent or received- you'll know this person is alright and active.

Again, no pressure and no need to contact your 'friend' directly to see that all is well. Again, amazing!

I'm not going to go into the 'social circle' aspects of Facebook groups, which are equally engaging and provide many more social interactions and benefits, simply because I haven't gotten into that yet and because I sense it's turning into a means to organize people in certain directions, sometimes even commercial directions.

For now, anyone of us can just enjoy the simple pleasure of a few minutes of accepting an invitation from an old friend, possibly making a new friend, and communicating socially with people from the comfort of your computer desk.

If everything I knew and experienced about friendship in the past, before Facebook, can be called version 1.0, then it is clear to me that this new version 2.0 is a major, digitally-driven leap.

My vote goes to Friendship 1.0 plus 2.0 for a more complete and healthy relationship with friends old and new.

zanasser@gmail.com