The frustration of international customers at the unavailability of the Zune in their countries has been loudly stated since the devices release and has fallen completely on deaf ears.  Microsoft has to a large extent damaged their prospective sales in all of those countries by their treating of them as second class citizens of the world. Many people in those countries could have become loyal Zune customers that would have hopped from their current MP3 player to the user friendly and aesthetically pleasing Zune. However, people have progressed from frustration to downright anger at Microsoft preventing the Zune from being sold to non-Americans.

Microsoft has since widened its net considerably but in a political climate so charged with suspicion of American motives the move to keep the Zune, in the family, so to speak, was one that surely has damaged the chance of the device to overtake its competitors abroad. Steps were even taken in order to prevent people from utilizing devices they may have purchases from online marketplaces such as eBay, and they were forced to sign up for US based accounts in order to even utilize their device.

Microsoft has built an image of exclusivity in contrast to its chief competitor who does its best to promote accessibility. The Zune is an excellent device, but the fact of the matter is that the MP3 player market is chiefly in the hands of younger demographics that don’t ever like to feel like they are buying from a company that only ever has its best interests at heart. Some of the moves, especially in regards to the lack of international releases of the Zune, made people to feel that way about Microsoft. In contrast, that chief competitor of the Zune has spend years building up a reputation for being accessible and friendly to people of all cultures and from all parts of the globe. No one ever could have conceived of Apple not releasing an iPod in Canada. Well, until the iPhone, but that’s an article for a different blog.

The American exclusivity of the Zune was a blunder on Microsoft’s part. If they had made it available on a broader basis a little earlier they could have alleviated some of the attitude towards the product that they created by delaying international releases as long as they did.