klier

Y es, Microsoft's new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.

LMAO, that seriously made me LOL

I don't really like Microsoft, and the way they almost force you to buy their products. I am perfectly content with the Windows OS however, and I cannot wait to buy Vista.

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audi_rudy

i just got my ipod for my birthday last weekend the ipod video 20g u2 edition. The second day it froze until the battery died and then yesterday it did the same thing. I love the thing besides that problem but i would never buy this zune thing it just seems cra#ppy. I have officially left microsoft for good after reoccuring problems with my laptops and now im runing on a macbook pro and loving it.

siko

Make sure you update yr iPod firmware... maybe that will help with yr freezing.

audi_rudy

hey thanks siko ill try that out!

Osnabrueck

I'm very schadenfreude over the failure of Zune - and yes, I'm willing to declare Zune DOA this early in the game. It just is.

After all months of hype, a colossal media blitz, and article after article examining weather or not the iPod had finally met its match, the Zune debuts to world that's completely indifferent.

It's already over for Zune for these reasons:

• The Zune hardware arguably has an edge on the iPod right now, but isn't selling. The moment the next-generation iPod debuts (with a presumably large screen), Zune will be at a severe disadvantage.

• Despite having features that the iPod lacks, it's not a better mousetrap.

• Microsoft is trying to enter a market that's already matured, and is going to wane in the coming years as devices converge.

• There's no "long-haul" for Microsoft here. In a few years time, portable music players will be completely different animals and large swaths of the market will evaporate alltogether.

• iPod has become a pop culture establishment. Even when presented with a superior alternative, consumers will opt for the iPod.

Osnabrueck

After reading a couple of articles, I need to add to the above list:

• The Zune user experience is terrible.

People are having a hard enough time installing the Zune software (it won't work with Firefox, you're required to use IE), let alone deal with the fact that files bought under Microsoft's own "Plays for Sure" DRM scheme for WMP won't work with Zune! So if you were a rebel and bought music from Napster or Rhapsody, you'll just have to go pound sand.

In addition to all this, Zune's store doesn't function like iTune's strictly a la carte store, where you can buy one song for a buck on your credit card. Instead, the Zune store requires you to buy a minimum of $5 worth of "points" which are used to buy songs, for 99 points each.

Did I mention that the Wi-Fi stinks? Even if you wire a buddy a non DRM Mp3 file, it will still evaporate after 3 days. And you can't sync the damn thing with your computerwirelessly, even though there's no technical reason why you couldn't. They just want to keep the wireless feature strictly for Zune to Zune sharing... of files which disappear after 3 days.

What a mess.

Centurion

I'm with you a 100% Josh. I'm a gadget freak and my affection for Zune is just about at a zero level. As you mentioned it has an hardware edge over the iPod but the uber cool (Wii)fi is a useless as computer speakers on a ten years old laptop. More over the battery time suck and it simply doesn't to anything better than the iPod.
Knocking a best seller of the thrown is only possible if you can beat it at what it does and sadly Billy G has already failed miserable with his over hyped Zune.

On the down side I don't like the fact that Sony, iriver and iaudio have seem to have let apple rule the world of portable hdd music players. Is it really that hard for them to develop a product which beats the iPod G5?

Osnabrueck

At this point, I say absolutely. Not only are competitors charged with the difficult task of having to develop a product that's superior to the iPod, but they have to create something that's just as appealing and has the infrastructure to back it up.

Even if you take the iTunes out of the equation, Apple already has a huge hardware advantage by virtue of their development budgets, and their volume advantage. Because Apple sells so many iPods, they're able to put bleeding-edge technology into their players and still eke out a comfortable profit. Contrast this with Microsoft, who is actually taking a loss on their Zune players, because they had to drop the release price to compete with Apple's G5.5 iPod.

Right now, Apple's market position is insurmountable. Just as Windows became the de facto OS for personal computers, so is the iPod and iTunes becoming the standard for the consumption and distribution of digital content. It just doesn't make any sense for consumers to jump for a alternative - you'd lock yourself out of an almost ubiquitous system of buying, organizing and sharing, and at the same time, the iPod is the only player that carries "fashion value."

The fix is in. Apple's biggest threat isn't the competition - their biggest threat is the next generation of digital media. If Apple plays their cards right, they could be a distribution juggernaut within 5 years. If they don't, they'll see their profits dwindle as Mp3 players give way to convergence devices.

Centurion

If we are to talk budget$ Apple hs the latest three years made companies envious with their high profit margins from ipod sales. Still Apple isn't the electronic giant which is packing most dough. Do I even have to say anything about Microsoft? They have so much money that they can afford to enter new markets like game consoles and mp3-players. Sony has been over cooky and wasted fortunes on the alredy dead minidisc and mp3(atrac)-players. More over they have pumped millions into bluray and the PS3 project.
With that being said apple doesn't have a financial advantage over Sony and MS but I bet that accountants working for iriver and iaudio doesn't see equally as many figures as the dudes over at all.
More over the Zune really isn't an MS product. The truth is that it is a modified Toshiba gigabeat. The Zune is probably just an experiment just like the Apple motorola phone.



When it comes to flash players there is alot to choose from but when it comes to hdd it looks like apple has a monopoly. Their G5 is clearly the best portable player money can buy today.

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