Oh no. Another Microsoft vs. Apple ad? Not again. This time, Microsoft released a new ad, along with a new program that takes a huge swipe at Apple and their iTunes store. Does Microsoft’s jab work?

The ad goes something like this. The cool guy, Wes Moss, shares a factoid at the beginning of the ad: at a buck a song, it would cost $30,000, to fill the iPod with songs. His point? Most people, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs notwithstanding, would run out of money before they ever run out of space on their iPod.

Does he have a point?  Well, read on.

His point is not that the iPod is a piece of junk with way too much storage capability. His point is, you need to subscribe to Zune Pass, because apparently, you can pay only $15 and get all the songs and downloads you want. Forever. All of them. Unlimited.

Does he have a point this time? If only it were that simple, all the iPod users would quickly rush over to Zune Pass and download the thousands of unlimited songs that they need to fill their iPods, and spend less than 30 grand.

Unfortunately, Zune Pass isn’t the promised land of unlimited downloads, as Wes makes it out to be. In case you didn’t catch it in the video, they pull a nifty SFX stunt on the unwary awe-struck viewer. It happens right when he reaches his powerful sell line: “Unlimited music downloads for 14.99 a month. One costs a lot and one costs a little.” During this dramatic announcement, the screen displays corresponding text. First it displays “Zune Pass. Unlimited Music.” Then, it displays “$14.99 a month.” along with the fine print: “Keep 10 songs.”  “Keep 10 songs” is the rub—the fine print as it were—   and it appears on the screen for .03 seconds.

With all the bad news only taking up .03 seconds, Zune Pass will probably get a lot of initial customers. But it will also get a lot of disgruntled customers. In the end, the $15 dollars gets you 10 songs. And, imagine that, the real price comes out to $1.50 per song! Suddenly 30k doesn’t seem so bad when compared with 45k!

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