MACMULL'S MUSINGS

Friday, December 29, 2006

I'm no branding expert, but ...

I find it a little odd that Microsoft doesn't possess registration rights in the domain name zune.com. In conducting my own consumer research into Apple's iPod vs. MS recently launched Zune, I discovered this anomaly:

Registrant:

Zune
SPORTZUN, S.A.
C/CLAUDIO COELLO, 78 Bis 4
MADRID, MADRID 28001
ES

Domain Name: ZUNE.COM
Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
Nogales, Antonio
ng@zune.com
CLAUDIO COELLO, 78 Bis, 4
MADRID, MADRID 28001
ES

Phone: +34914350461
Fax: +34915766735

Record expires on 21-Jun-2009
Record created on 22-Jun-1998
Database last updated on 02-Nov-2006

For a product that is being touted as "the iPod killer," one would think that the marketing and legal people in Redmond would have coordinated their efforts a little better prior to the product's launch. This is particularly true considering that windows.com and xbox.com, among other domain names, are safely in the hands of Microsoft.

Notwithstanding the fact that the domain name was first registered in 1998 undoubtedly well before the Zune was ever even conceived of in R&D, zune.com , at least in my opinion, may be ripe for a transfer to Microsoft.

posted by Joel at 12:42 AM

3 Comments:

  • A timely post in my mind. I was just thinking of registering a domain for fun and for the chance it might be valuable to someone in the future.

    By Blogger Erwin, At December 29, 2006 3:56 AM  

  • Well the good news is that honest domain name speculation is an accepted practice. However, proving that honesty or at least demonstrating an absence of bad faith in a domain name registration can sometimes be a challenge.

    By Blogger Joel, At December 30, 2006 12:13 PM  

  • On a side note it should be brought to attention that this campaign isn’t flying well in Israel, where Zune essentially means fuck.

    By Blogger Adam, At January 29, 2007 2:14 AM  

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