Lets see:
I have been wondering if someone would notice the sleazy marketing oriented approach to selling music Microsoft has come up with. I guess the public in general is to docile to reject companys that use there tactic like this. I vote with my dollars and where ever possible reject reality distorting goods and services.
Its even worse than you think.
How much do you want to bet that Microsoft will at some point adjust the 'exchange rate' between Microsoft Points and Dollars? (In Microsoft's favour of course.)
What's amazing is how little (i.e. none) coverage there has been about this same issue in the XBox 360 world.
Excellent point on the pricing and marketing. Personally, I didn't notice. I am sure that I am typical of most users in this regard.
Thanks for brining it up. I hope others notice, too.
The Federal Government actually has lots of problems with this, which is kind of entertaining. Point systems like this can be used to launder money by converting it into goods which can then be sold for cash.
A company I work with on occasion was considering this. It was a great idea, but it was ultimately felled by the various federal regulations.
So good luck to Microsoft on this venture.
Not sure I follow your math about the pricing per song. If you get 80 pts per dollar, that's 1.25 cents per point, so one song costs 79 * 1.25 cents = 98.75 cents. Slightly *less* than 99 cents.
Yah bad math, but are Zune songs actually cheaper? Look at the oddball pricing. Nice screw job actually: Only sell points in even 100's but they sell songs and albums one point less than even tens; so, unless you buy songs 79 at a time, M$ ends up keeping the extra $. Wonder if they expire, like Home Depot gift cards, too.
Hmmm... Playing with calculator... Wow, this is nastier than I thought! Is there even a combination of point purchases and song buys that will EVER use all of your points?
You don't want to buy 79 songs at a time. You need instead to buy 79 packets of n points and then buy n songs. I assume Microsoft will never sell a packet of n points where n is divisible by 79, and 79 is prime, so there are no shortcuts.
Very very nice analysis... I doubt most of the world chomping to buy the Zune is even aware of this carefully laden trap awaiting them..
Also sounds like a sneaky attempt at customer "stickiness"..
I like Apple's PayPal payment link.. it's online purchasing done right!
"most of the world chomping to buy the Zune"
Can we see a show of hands? Who wants to buy a Zune? Anyone?
Commenting by HaloScan
