When Microsoft introduced its Zune media players back in 2006, some hailed then as an “iPod killer,” believing Apple’s seeming stranglehold on the portable media player market would be broken now that a heavyweight like Microsoft had, finally, decided to enter the fray.
The iPod is still going strong, and despite a product refresh a year later, the Zune line hasn’t exactly been racking up serious sales compared to the iPod—Microsoft has sold about 2 million Zunes since launch, while Apple moves well over 3 million iPods a month. Microsoft has persistently denied rumors that Microsoft would follow Apple’s lead with the iPhone and produce some sort of Zune phone, but has otherwise gone nearly silent on the future of the Zune, leaving industry watchers to wonder just what Microsoft planned to do with the Zune platform.
Now, the Hollywood Reporter and other sources report that Microsoft has been hitting production companies and agencies in hopes of securing exclusive digital video content exclusively for the Zune. Although Microsoft execs would love to have hot content that was Zune only, reports indicate they’re also open to deals in which content would debut on the Zune before becoming available in other channels. However, Microsoft is keenest on projects that could leverage the Zune’s somewhat infamously under-used “social” features. Microsoft is reportedly looking to the Zune as a way to make video “consumption” more of a communal, social experience, much as the company’s Halo franchise turned first-person shooter from a solitary activity to a network-based social event for many gamers.
Whether Microsoft can pull it off remains to be seen: with only two million Zunes in the wild, the Zune tagline “welcome to the social” is more like “welcome to the wasteland” for many Zune users, some of whom have reported never encountering another Zune with which they can use social networking features.
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