Goodonebales's Profile

Mr. Stoup, I agree with your analysis of the pricing scheme of Marketplace. However, if you look at it from Microsoft's point of view, it is actually a very smart idea. Like you said, the average consumer in the United States is an idiot. I don't distinguish myself from this population because, well, hey, we all do stupid things, especially with our money. That being said, most people will just see that they have to pay 79 points as opposed to 99 cents. They will not even make the correlation that 79 points EQUALS 99 cents, and that they will, indeed, have to shell out money that they didn't intend to spend otherwise. In essence, this does, in fact, create an interest free loan on the part of the consumer. If anything, the argument shouldn't be made that Microsoft sucks, or that everyone who uses the Zune is an idiot. While it may be true that a lot of people who use the Zune are idiots, here is where I draw my distinction. Microsoft doesn't suck for creating this pricing scheme. It's brilliant. Make the consumers pay more than they expected. If they use it all somehow, fine. If not, then we'll have some of their money for a while. They won't know any better because most of them are dumb. However, not all Zune users will be dumb. Many will find other ways to get music. For those people, it doesn't matter how you price it, they're not going to be getting music from Marketplace anyways, unless there's some other vested interest in Marketplace. Say, for instance, owning an XBox. Therefore, this was actually a very smart move on the part of Microsoft. While it sucks for some consumers, it works out to Microsoft's advantage, which is obviously what they want. They're a business, and they are in the business of making money. I hope no one views this in any way as a personal attack. You can use your Mac, I'll use my PC. You can use your iPod, I'll use my Zune. The world would be a much better place if people understood that different people have different tastes. -Scott