How to (and how not to) sell technology

by Charles Miller on October 17, 2006

Found on a 37Signals blog, and accompanying comments. Apple's Steve Jobs describing what he thinks is wrong with Microsoft's upcoming Zune music player:

I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.

Somehow, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer finds a way to make the Zune sound even worse:

I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience.

That's how it is. Steve Jobs can make sharing earwax sound sexy. Ballmer can make a digital file transfer sound like something you'd need to clean up after.

Previously: Anatomy of an Obsession

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