The New Zunes are doomed to fail like the Zune of yore
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Microsoft would like the masses to believe it has a hit on its hands with the new line of Zunes out. In fact, you could even draw a parallel between the current Zune line-up and past iPod line-ups, specifically the iPods of 2005/2006. The company is fighting a year old war and it has already lost.
An article over at Roughly Drafted goes into gory details but I’ll try to keep it short. Microsoft’s new Zunes simply cannot complete with Apple in the areas of style and availability. The new iPod Nano is thin, small and has the same resolution as the “boxy” Zune delivered by Microsoft.
It also has nothing to compete with the iPod Touch which has WiFi, the iTunes Store, web browsing and YouTube features for $50 more than an 80GB Zune. It depends on what you’re looking for but I’d rather have those features and less storage than a huge, bulky, slightly ugly player. But, everything is ugly and bulky when compared to the iPod.
Microsoft is saying that the 80GB Zune has sold out because it is popular but that may not be the case. It could be that it simply doesn’t want to deliver the 80GB Zune to customers because it still has a huge inventory of 30GB Zunes to get rid of, that no one really wants, though that is one of the top sellers over at Amazon, for $90. Well, if you don’t have an iPod yet (face it, it’s an iPod or… ummmm… yeah…) then a 30GB Zune for $90 isn’t so bad, provided its not the brown version.
The Zune 80 isn’t that popular, Microsoft simply can’t deliver large volumes of the things. Which may drive some (possibly most) to seek out an iPod. Why not? The iPod may well be the only player done right, though the parent company of said product has some work to do when it comes to quality control of their computers but that’s another post.
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November 24th, 2007
How sad that you need to defend your ipod against every new player that comes out. Clearly, you and others must own Apple shares or maybe you are just followerd like many who follow and love a sports team. Thats sad! I personally like new products and I don’t blindly support a company that doesnt listen to their own customers. The Ipod “Classic” is a joke. Ask yourself if they (Apple) made any new improvements or just decided to “recycle” an old formula just to fool naive new customers. I had a 5th gen Ipod, just sold it and just got a new Zune 80-for me its like night and day. Oh well, the Apple hype machine will continue no matter what the competition does to improve the MP3 player market. How do you like them apples.
November 24th, 2007
How sad that you need to defend your ipod against every new player that comes out. Clearly, you and others must own Apple shares or maybe you are just followerd like many who follow and love a sports team. Thats sad! I personally like new products and I don’t blindly support a company that doesnt listen to their own customers. The Ipod “Classic” is a joke. Ask yourself if they (Apple) made any new improvements or just decided to “recycle” an old formula just to fool naive new customers. I had a 5th gen Ipod, just sold it and just got a new Zune 80-for me its like night and day. Oh well, the Apple hype machine will continue no matter what the competition does to improve the MP3 player market. How do you like them apples.
November 24th, 2007
You are a sour piece of dung, my friend. I have owned both Zune and iPod and NOW prefer the Zune 80 over all… And, by the way, why are you getting your panties in a wad anyway? Is this a friggin marathon race, a football game, are you sleeping with Steve Jobs?
Maybe you should be writing beach romance novels instead of Tech reviews… You obviously have no talent or any sense of reporting…
Sorry I read your paltry caterwauling
November 24th, 2007
Wow, you have them trolls attacking you. How I wish I could get paid by MS just to troll for them and say nice things about Zune.
November 24th, 2007
I like the iPod, I hate Macs, I do not worship all things Apple, understand that.
November 24th, 2007
I don’t know how it’s possible to prefer the Zune 80 over the iPod Touch… actually how it’s possible to prefer ANYTHING over the iPod Touch…
November 24th, 2007
You’ve completely missed the boat on your zune call. Everyone knows that Microsoft has made an enormous leap for a company that has been in the MP3 game for not even 2 years. While it is true that the zunes last year were overlooked by most, just go to any Best Buy or Circuit City and you will see the salespeople actually recommending the zune. This was not the case last year, but is now the case today. And let’s not get too over hyped on the Itouch. Yes, it is extremely cool and fun to play with. But we are not talking toys here. We are talking MP3 players. The Itouch is too big, too cumbersome to push all the stupid icons and move your fingers around the screen to move the volume up/down, etc. That is why still so many Apple enthusiasts are going out and buying the Nano over the Itouch. It’s just an easier interface and it’s smaller. The zune is just as good as the nanos of today and in fact better with the FM radio, wireless synching and the fantastic new touch Squircle. In fact, all those apple dopes who have to move their fingers clockwise and counter clockwise to move up and down in a list, will find the Zune touch pad much more intuitive. Then, let’s take the 50 billion dollars in cash that Microsoft has to keep feeding and improving this thing and its related software, zune community, etc. and you will have Apple worried big time. At the end of the day, it is the consumer who will win. And I feel I am winning big with my new Zune which is amazing. I gave my Apple Nano away to charity.
November 24th, 2007
Simple Jonathon. iPod Touch has less than 1/4 the storage capacity of the Zune 80 and the iPod 80. I like my touch, but it doesn’t hold all I need. I own the iPhone and the Touch since I attempt to cover all players. Unlike this author, I can see the good in other players and I am not blinded by my biases. I am biased too, but I am not going to run articles full of inaccuracies to tarnish the attempts of other manufactures that come up against my prefered device.
At gotzune, I like to point my users to very biased articles to show them what is being said out there, but I think one article in this circle is enough. I am not going to link this “Me too” post.
November 24th, 2007
Jonathan, how is it that you get paid to put down the Wii, but Microsoft still pays you for those putting-down-the-Wii articles even after you put down its Zune?
November 25th, 2007
You are all wrong in a key issue: Zune is *not* an MP3 player. It’s a WMA player. MP3 support is temporary. Zune was not created to allow innocent teenagers to listen to illegal mp3 files downloaded from illegal sites.
As soon as Zune becomes the only music player in the market, you can forget about listening to innocent “*.mp3″ files.
November 26th, 2007
Have you used the Zune? it’s fantastic… The itouch is a neat thing, it has it’s uses, but it doesn’t have enough memory yet, and most people who use flash players, use them while excercising, and like to be able to switch songs and volume without having to look at the sceen.
The zune was actually going to be a touch screen until they tested them and found people like to just click in their pockets or the side of their arm, or belt.
November 27th, 2007
If only things were the way you want them to be, instead of the way they are….
Here is a reality check:
The Zune has sold very few of its original 30 gig model – they are being sold off all over (amazon etc.) for $90. Good deal, because thats about what they are worth. Microsoft listed shipments to suppliers, NOT actual sales.
The ipod has sold – gasp – 150 million and counting at the rate of over 1 million per WEEK (and climbing). Zune sales still have not reached a mil.
The ‘new’ zune has 80 gig, but only HALF the battery life of the new 80 gig iPod classic. Thats a bit of a blow.
The rental model (subscription) is NOT working, has failed repeatedly, and will NOT work simply because people want to OWN the music.
Microsofty is hoping for some kind of insane fascist new law to stop all sales of music, and only have rentals through them.
Dream on.
The music biz is in a mess and Apple may well emerge (like it or not) as the new Music Biz big Boss. Oh, wait, they already are….
What will the useless Balmer do? Have to resort to lies, bribery, stealing, terrorism and the usual microsofty nonsense.
Trouble is, no-one is listening to M$ any more – the game has changed and they didnt notice.
May 24th, 2008
wow – Walter, you must be a real apple fan-boy. How many BJs did Jobs give you to say this. My 80GB Zune has 24h battery life playing Music and 12h playing movies. I did upgrade it from an original battery of 12h/6h. Microsoft was out of the mp3 player race for two years. Only reason why apple has sold a – gasp 150mill units is because they have so many damn versions out and every time they get smaller, people want one no matter how many they have, they also look cute and cuddly like the Leopard OSX. Now Apple hasn’t revolutionized the music business but they have revolutionized the way we listen to music although in such a failed sense. The 80GB iPod is what? 300 bucks? the 80GB Zune is only 250 bucks. 50 million of those 150 mill are REPLACEMENT iPods since people drop their iPods and the acrylic/plastic backing doesn’t protect it against drops higher than 1ft. The Zune 80GB models come with TITANIUM backing, which is very durable and can survive drops of 6ft or so. Trouble is people are more concerned with pop culture than actual performance. They see a star with an iPod and then they have to get one. Just like buying shoes or clothing. and my friend, if you have to call Microsoft out with lies, bribery, stealing and above all terrorism? Where do you live? Iran? You’ve got to be the most ignorant Apple fan-boy, grow some gonads and step up to a mans game.