Digital Home Thoughts: PlaysForSure: Now Called "Certified for Windows Vista"

"In a move that's supposedly all about making things simpler for consumers, Microsoft has decided to rebrand its PlaysForSure media compatibility platform as "Certified for Windows Vista." As originally envisioned—and Microsoft swears this remains unchanged—PlaysForSure was designed to let consumers know when digital meda and digital media players were compatible with one another: if someone bought a music player from (say) SanDisk and wanted to buy music from (say) Yahoo Music, the presence of the PlaysForSure logo was to tell consumers that, yes, that device ought to work with that service. PlaysForSure was a certification that a product or service worked within the Microsoft digital media ecosystem."



Huh? So...what if you are still using Windows XP? Shouldn't it be called "Certified for Windows Vista...oh and Windows XP too." Ultimately this is an effort to bring Plays For Sure under the Vista branding umbrella, to further drive sales of Microsoft's newest operating system. But with tens of millions of copies of XP still out there, I think this whole branding thing could be more trouble than it's worth, especially when you throw the Zune into the mix.