Microsoft Zune
sduford on Oct 28 2006 at 10:08 am | Filed under: Mobile Devices, Music
Three weeks ago I was in Seattle and visited a long time friend and she had a beta version of the Zune (she works for Microsoft). I liked what I saw. The Zune is not as cool looking as the iPod and the user interface is not quite as slick (at least not on the beta unit). However, it is much more rugged than the iPod: it was designed to
sustain a lot of abuse and it has a very scratch resistant finish. That’s one thing I never liked about the iPod: 15 minutes after you take it out of the box the slick finish is already showing some scratches.
I also like that the Zune has a much larger and high quality screen, and supports Windows Media format, which is widely supported and offers some very high quality loss-less compression. I dislike the proprietary nature of the iPod where you are forced to use iTunes and nothing else.
Apple has a huge market lead and I don’t think the Zune will overtake it any time soon. The Zune has a horrible name (what the heck were they thinking?), and it is not as slick or pretty as the iPod. Also, Microsoft’s marketing sucks, so you will never see the type of ultra-hip ads that Apple puts out.
But the Zune will appeal to people who, like me, appreciate a rugged design, will appreciate the fact that it uses Windows Media and enables you to use your existing digital music libraries as is. It also has some cool features like an FM tuner and WiFi support so you can exchange files wirelessly with your friends.
It may not displace the iPod, at least not for a while, but I predict that it will find itself a decent niche. The Zune comes out November 14th and I have just pre-ordered mine.
