The Zune’s Hidden Agenda

After writing an article about how Microsoft will be using the Zune simply as a business platform, not as a consumer pleasing product, I suddenly realized what one of their strategies will be.

And why one of the colors is brown.

The U.S. Military and Government is pretty much sold on Microsoft products.

Now it dawns on me that, based on the article above, one of the back-door business deals M$ could engage in is to leverage off their business software and strike a deal with the U.S. military to supply millions of Zunes for language training, training videos, and mapping. Hence the larger, cheaper construction. The military doesn’t like shiny, elitist tools. They like basic, rugged stuff that smacks of lowest bidder and practicality, not style and attitude.

One day, we’ll wake up to discover that Microsoft has struck a deal with the U.S. Army to supply millions of (camouflage brown) Zunes. The iPod will be out and the Zune will be in. No doubt, M$ will make some kind of special deal, tied to their other products, that will make the Zune irresistible to an organization already in the Microsoft fold.

And so it will start.