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ZunePodTouch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 5, 2009
8
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The iPod touch now has a serious competitor in the form of the Zune HD, so Apple really need to making the 3G a compelling upgrade. Sadly it seems that the best Apple could come up with is a camera module. Is this going to be enough to stop buyers moving over to the Zune HD?

In terms of features the Zune HD is ahead in most areas...

Design: Both about equal, although many people will prefer to non scratch back of the Zune HD

Touchscreen: Equal. Same technolgy

Display: Zune is clear winner here with OLED technology, great viewing angles and incredible clarity

Processor and graphics: Zune well ahead here thanks to the Tegra

Battery life: The combination of OLED screen and Tegra chipset means the Zune will offer significantly better battery life than the iPod.

Software: The client and device software of the Zune HD look to be top notch.

Apps: iPod touch will have an advantage here for a while, but Microsoft has an army of developers porting applications from the appstore to the Zune HD platform. App parity will likely not take long.

Price: The confirmed price of the 16GB Zune HD is $50 lower than the 2G 16GB iPod Touch. Is Apple expected to lower the price of the 3G touch?
 
Considering that no one has seen an iPod Touch 3G, how can you be sure it won't be better than the Zune?

Does Microsoft have a working app store? music?

What about all the current iPod Touch/iPhone users? Do you seriously think they will dump their iPods to get a Zune, which would require them to re-purchase all of their apps and music?
 
The iPod touch now has a serious competitor in the form of the Zune HD, so Apple really need to making the 3G a compelling upgrade. Sadly it seems that the best Apple could come up with is a camera module. Is this going to be enough to stop buyers moving over to the Zune HD?

In terms of features the Zune HD is ahead in most areas...

Design: Both about equal, although many people will prefer to non scratch back of the Zune HD

Touchscreen: Equal. Same technolgy

Display: Zune is clear winner here with OLED technology, great viewing angles and incredible clarity

Processor and graphics: Zune well ahead here thanks to the Tegra

Battery life: The combination of OLED screen and Tegra chipset means the Zune will offer significantly better battery life than the iPod.

Software: The client and device software of the Zune HD look to be top notch.

Apps: iPod touch will have an advantage here for a while, but Microsoft has an army of developers porting applications from the appstore to the Zune HD platform. App parity will likely not take long.

Price: The confirmed price of the 16GB Zune HD is $50 lower than the 2G 16GB iPod Touch. Is Apple expected to lower the price of the 3G touch?

You're totally right. You should buy a Zune.
 
Apps: iPod touch will have an advantage here for a while, but Microsoft has an army of developers porting applications from the appstore to the Zune HD platform. App parity will likely not take long.

You've got an interesting post, but its going to be incredibly difficult for Microsoft to get anywhere near as many apps as Apple unless they manage to sell a huge number of players. At the very least they need to sell 2-3 million before Christmas.

What about all the current iPod Touch/iPhone users? Do you seriously think they will dump their iPods to get a Zune, which would require them to re-purchase all of their apps and music?

DRM free music from the iTunes Store will play on Zunes.
 
DRM free music from the iTunes Store will play on Zunes.

Maybe, but unless there have been new developments that Google is not showing to me, there is no way to get the music on the Zune if you have a Mac. Unless you resort to BC or virtualization.
 
Maybe, but unless there have been new developments that Google is not showing to me, there is no way to get the music on the Zune if you have a Mac. Unless you resort to BC or virtualization.

Good point. I guess you mean Microsoft not Google though ;).
 
Considering that no one has seen an iPod Touch 3G, how can you be sure it won't be better than the Zune?
Agree. OP, how can you compare the Zune HD to something that is not yet for sale nor do we know the specs?

What about the fact that the Zune still doesn't work on Macs?
True.

With a Mac, is it possible to simply drag MP3 files from the Mac to the Zune like other MP3 players?
 
Well, that sort of leaves out the Mac using crowd.

So is the Zune HD something that Microsoft is trying to increase market share? Or is it something that Microsoft is letting die a slow death?

It is supposed to be the line's savior, but it may just be going out with a bang.
 
The iPod touch now has a serious competitor in the form of the Zune HD, so Apple really need to making the 3G a compelling upgrade. Sadly it seems that the best Apple could come up with is a camera module. Is this going to be enough to stop buyers moving over to the Zune HD?

That just made my day. You expect people to buy the Zune HD over the iPod Touch? It's an iPod! Look at the iPod Nano and Classic. There are tons of better products out there, but none of them come close to selling as much as Apple sells.


Design: Both about equal, although many people will prefer to non scratch back of the Zune HD
iPods have been getting scratched forever and people don't seem to care.

Display: Zune is clear winner here with OLED technology, great viewing angles and incredible clarity

Processor and graphics: Zune well ahead here thanks to the Tegra

Battery life: The combination of OLED screen and Tegra chipset means the Zune will offer significantly better battery life than the iPod.

I'll give you that.

Software: The client and device software of the Zune HD look to be top notch.

Wrong. If you look at the device software, it's actually pretty bad. Here's how I look at how well software is designed. How intuitive would it be without the colors, cool fonts, and animations? The Zune HD is pretty poor when it comes to intuitiveness. The software keyboard doesn't have enough space or any space dividing keys and the landscape keyboard could be much wider. The web browser lacks copy/paste, tabbed browsing, and the ability to share links. When watching a video, navigation controls take up the entire screen (forward/backwards, volume up/down) and you can barely see the video when the iPhone OS has just two boxes for navigation, giving you a lot of room to see the video playing. You have to go into a separate menu to find a song based on it's first letter when the iPhone/iPod Touch has the letters already there in the "All Songs" menu. On iPod Touch to get to a category (podcasts, albums, artists, all songs) it requires one or two touches but the Zune HD requires you to slide, slide, slide along the top until you get to where you want.

There are many more examples of things like these. What I'm saying is the cool animations and menus and now playing screens are flashy and nice but they're there at the sacrifice of functionality and intuitiveness.

Price: The confirmed price of the 16GB Zune HD is $50 lower than the 2G 16GB iPod Touch. Is Apple expected to lower the price of the 3G touch?

Apple will almost definitely discontinue the 8GB model and have a 16GB model at $199 or $229, a 32GB model at $299, and a 64GB model at $399 (the Zune HD doesn't have a 64GB model).

Apple has nothing to worry about.
 
Apple will almost definitely discontinue the 8GB model and have a 16GB model at $199 or $229, a 32GB model at $299, and a 64GB model at $399 (the Zune HD doesn't have a 64GB model).

Apple has nothing to worry about.
Agree with the pricing.

However, Apple has to continue to innovate and update the iPod line to remain competitive. Many other companies want to take away their market share.
 
I don't agree with you. I think its going to be an epic win! I could care less about the camera but what is SUPER important to me is the app store and I don't think ANY other company (EVEN MS) is going to catch up to the app store anytime soon. Also just the speed improvements and more ram added to the device is a huge deal for me. The only thing I like that the zune has and the touch probably won't is the OLED screen but that alone is not going to make me buy a zune over a iPod Touch. Not to mention I don't even think they have macintosh software available lol. To me the iPod Touch is more of a PDA then an iPod and the apps in the app store are essential for making it into a PDA something the zune just can not do yet.
 
why would u need to rebuy all ur music?
even if he couldnt move them he can just get them for free -.-
 
The OP's argument is entirely pointless. 'iPod' is now synonymous with 'MP3 player' and has dominated the market for years. The reason for this is because it is a fashion accessory. The average person is not interested in specs, but buys an iPod because they are cool, and on top of they come in a range of price points so cost is not an issue. And as the iPod has been dominant for several years, people are unlikely to switch to a different brand because of the hassle of having to ditch iTunes and start using other software.

Most people won't care that the Zune allegedly has better specs. There have been so many music players in the past which were 'better' than the iPod but never caught on. Specs don't matter at all the the average user, all they care about is image and basic usability.
 
Display: Zune is clear winner here with OLED technology, great viewing angles and incredible clarity

I couldn't tell you what OLED is and neither could at least half of the people who own an iPod so why should OLED matter?

Half of the things you mention, don't matter to someone buying a music player.

I simply want mine to hold lots of songs and that's it.

After all this time, I still only knew one person who owned a Zune. He didn't buy it, someone at his school was giving them away. :eek:
 
I really hate how people say 'epic fail'. I hate it so much that I disregarded the whole rambling on about the iPod Touch and proceeded to just comment about his ridiculously immature way of approaching a topic.

Tip to the OP: Next time you are about to plead a case make sure you stay away from the following maxims: noob, epic fail, and owned.
 
I don't care what the zune has that is better than the iPod touch that no one knows much about. Nothing IMO will ever beat an Apple product.
Battery life is cited as up to 24 hours (wireless off) for music and up to four hours for video, but this seemed a little toward the low-end. We e-mailed Microsoft and got back much better numbers: up to 33 hours (wireless off) for music and up to 8.5 hours for video (charge time is three hours when connected to a PC and two hours with A/C adapter), with the following footnote:
Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged
Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
Battery life: The combination of OLED screen and Tegra chipset means the Zune will offer significantly better battery life than the iPod.
Am I missing something? And with an update soon, battery will probably be improved.
Software: The client and device software of the Zune HD look to be top notch.
IMO I dont trust any Microsoft OS
Price: The confirmed price of the 16GB Zune HD is $50 lower than the 2G 16GB iPod Touch. Is Apple expected to lower the price of the 3G touch?
Yes, like the 1G upgrade to the 2G, they will probably double the capacity at the same price. So I think it will be $30 more for the Zune HD if this happens?
 
epic fail because MS decided to discontinue all the other Zunes and is still not selling them out of the US?
MS has had something like 8 years to catch up with Apple regarding iPods and about 2 regarding the touch and you, OP, seriously think it's all about specs especially OLED/HD?
Even Creative/Sony probably have better products than MS's.
Apple will just see numbers grow which is pretty much a win in my book.
 
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