I stand by my argument that Zune entered into the market just as that market died. Your point about the credibility is another part of the whole package.
Well I wish I had a small piece of the billions Apple made from that dead market.
Your point about the credibility is another part of the whole package.
What package?
The whole package of niggles that kept the Zune from mass market success. One was the fast-shrinking market for PMPs. Another was the fact that it was Microsoft, an inherently uncool corporation. I'm agreeing with you on this point.
Apple making money from the "dead" market, I believe, is a huge factor in the death of the market. It's a small market to begin with, people who want an MP3 player with a music store and mandatory music management software but don't want a smartphone. In that small of a market you'd be a fool to consider Product X over an iPod in that market no matter how much better Product X is. There's only room for one major player there, and Microsoft doesn't do well when they're relegated to second place.
I'm agreeing with you, but also standing by my assertion that Microsoft had no chance in the market no matter how awesome their product was/could have possibly been.
Zune failed because it was late to market and was saddled with a corporate owner that lacked credibility in that particular marketplace.
Sources for the above dates and stats are Wikipedia