Is the press being too harsh on the Microsoft Zune?

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Fair comment, but not just iPod

The Zune has indeed been widely criticized, but it isn't only the
inevitable comparison with the iPod.

I thought it was most telling that on the recent Engadget
podcast (and those kids know their gadgets!), Peter Rojas and
Ryan Block, who are at most ambivalent about the iPod if not
actually hostile to it, actually said that they wouldn't recommend
buying either a Zune OR an iPod this Christmas.

Instead, they'd buy a SanDisk Sansa, which they consider the
current best of breed of MP3 players in terms of design,
convenience and function.

I think that's a clue to the problem with the Zune: it's an iPod
wannabe, but what is most successful about the iPod is it's
reputation, which is simply not achievable without actually being
better than an iPod. There are other products that in many ways
are better, and by extension more worthwhile than the Zune.

It's a bar any challenger has to jump and the Zune with so many
failings - poor software, no USB mass storage support as an
external drive, bulky size, lack of PlaysForSure support, WMV
based video - is simply not up to, hence the dismissive reviews.

Posted by: mikataur   Posted on: 11/20/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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