Comments on: Microsoft Discovers Typography

By: Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:37:37 +0000

I’d have to say if I was gonna get an mp3 player that wasn’t an iPod, I’d trade all the way down to the cheapest.

By: Alvin Diec

Alvin Diec — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:17:54 +0000

I have yet to run into a Zune owner.

By: Blake Howard

Blake Howard — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:37:08 +0000

Totally agree, blown away to see “well-designed” and “Microsoft”. I love the large type, I can’t make out the type face from the image above (Verbanda or maybe Trebuchet?), but the Gothic setting is nice, and something that Apple has no business owning. Sadly though, at the end of the day its still a Zune.

By: Russell Heistuman

Russell Heistuman — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:15:35 +0000

I imagine that unfortunately for Microsoft, the only way for a division within MS to successfully execute a cohesive design strategy like the Zune is to isolate it from the rest of the parent corporate culture and give it some design autonomy. While Apple maintains that design ethic at the very core of its corporate culture. Remember the Microsoft iPod parody video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0 that was rumored to have been produced by MS internal marketing department targeting their own frustration with the MS approach to marketing and how it compared to Apple’s? Looks like the Zune has been the beneficiary of that effort.