Robbie Bach: Zune is a multi-years investment project
from cliczune.com
Q: You’ve said that the investment horizon for the Xbox is multiple years. What is the investment horizon for the Zune. Is it as long as Xbox?
A: Well, it’s of a different nature. First, as we said earlier, the economics of the investment, the size of the investment have a big difference. That’s the first point to note. The second point to note is the business works differently. There’s new hardware every year. It cycles in a model that’s very different from the video game model, where you’re sort of in for five or six or seven years and then you’ve got the next version of the product, and you have the chance to make the next incremental leap. So, by nature, I think the investment horizons and investment cycles are different. On the other hand, I’ll say our competitor in the music space has 80% market share. Sony only had 60. So, that’s a little different dynamic. I think that’s also true. But, yes, it’s multi-years, just to get back to your original question. It’s definitely multi-year.
An interesting article with Robbie Bach was published by A+E interactive. Robbie Bach is the president of Microsoft, Entertainment and Devices Division (Xbox and Zune). The article is very long but if you want to have a better understanding of Microsoft strategy in the entertainment market, this article is for you. You will also clearly see that the Zune can’t be a “fly by night” and Microsoft is going to back the product for a long time.
