iPod Tomorrow? Zune-killer?

[plinden]

I'm going to go against the flow here and say that I think the Zune is going to be a success.

This is despite the odd points system (79 points per song = 99c per song), the fact that you have to buy points in $5 increments (meaning you're giving MS an interest free loan and you'll have to buy $385 worth of songs to not have points left over), the fact that MS are screwing their existing PlayForSure customers by not supporting it, fact that it's 2x thicker than the iPod with video.

After all, since when did mediocrity prevent success? Look at how bad Windows was up to SP2, look at how bad MySpace is currently.

No, I think there's been enough buzz generated for MS to sell plenty of them. They might not outsell iPods any time soon, if ever, but there'll be plenty of teenagers out there who'll get their parents to buy them one, and plenty of Apple antifanbois who'll buy anything but Apple.

 

[noel4r]

How surprised would all of you be if Apple released a "Zune-killer" tomorrow?

I would be very surprised because it's not going to happen.

 

[Tom B.]

On the surface, the Zune may look like it matches the iPod's features pretty well, but that is just not the case; it doesn’t have a single standard iPod amenity: no games, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, password-protected volume limiter, equalizer, calendar, address book or notes module. Incredibly, you can’t even use the Zune as an external hard drive, as you can with just about every other player on earth.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

it was released years ago...iPod.

Don't you mean 5 years ago

 

[astral]

On the surface, the Zune may look like it matches the iPod's features pretty well, but that is just not the case; it doesn’t have a single standard iPod amenity: no games, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, password-protected volume limiter, equalizer, calendar, address book or notes module. Incredibly, you can’t even use the Zune as an external hard drive, as you can with just about every other player on earth.

Most of those cons mean nothing to me, except the hard drive support. I don't use the games, alarm, stopwatch, etc. Other things I don't like about it are lack of mac support and the size, but besides that it doesn't look like an awful product.

Advantages it has over the ipod are support for all three major formats (mp3, m4a, and WMA) and a subscription option. Granted, I don't have any wma files, but it is rather arrogant of Apple to have locked out the wma support that is built in to the ipod's decoding chip. Choice is good, people.

 

[theman5725]

I'm going to go against the flow here and say that I think the Zune is going to be a success.

This is despite the odd points system (79 points per song = 99c per song), the fact that you have to buy points in $5 increments (meaning you're giving MS an interest free loan and you'll have to buy $385 worth of songs to not have points left over), the fact that MS are screwing their existing PlayForSure customers by not supporting it, fact that it's 2x thicker than the iPod with video.

After all, since when did mediocrity prevent success? Look at how bad Windows was up to SP2, look at how bad MySpace is currently.

No, I think there's been enough buzz generated for MS to sell plenty of them. They might not outsell iPods any time soon, if ever, but there'll be plenty of teenagers out there who'll get their parents to buy them one, and plenty of Apple antifanbois who'll buy anything but Apple.

I have to agree with this one. The Zune will do fairly well this holiday season, and will possibly gain more market share as time moves on, especialy if Apple doesn't release a 6g iPod anytime soon.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

I think we will see a new iPod product (and I'm not saying an true video iPod) within the next few weeks.

Apple wont take the release of the Zune lying down, because the G5.5 iPods weren't a real update.....

 

[joshwest]

i tested one out tonight boy its a piece of poop..

 

[zap2]

I'd crack up if they did....as not doubt it would steal any possible thunder the Zune will get!


Still I doubt it!(no need to!)

 

[tech4all]

the zune will crash and burn, enough said

You don't know how right you are. Zune commericial posted on YouTube, posted in this thread.

 

[needthephone]

The Zune looks like it should have been released 3 years ago.

Its a half baked effort to test the water.

An existing modified design from Toshiba.

For the people with no sense, style or taste. Imagine how embaressing it would be to own one of those beige things.

I have no axe to grind though, no particular alliegence to apple just I like the execution, design and attention to detail of their products. Something MS ignores

 

[Chundles]

Advantages it has over the ipod are support for all three major formats (mp3, m4a, and WMA) and a subscription option. Granted, I don't have any wma files, but it is rather arrogant of Apple to have locked out the wma support that is built in to the ipod's decoding chip. Choice is good, people.

It's certainly not "Arrogant" of Apple to not support wma playback on the iPod - they'd have to license the right to use the format from Microsoft. I really don't think Apple would like to be paying MS money for every iPod sold.

They don't call it "Windows Media Audio/Video" for nothing. It's for Windows and MS will keep it that way.

 

[needthephone]

http://db.tidbits.com/article/8750

 

[iMeowbot]

It's certainly not "Arrogant" of Apple to not support wma playback on the iPod - they'd have to license the right to use the format from Microsoft. I really don't think Apple would like to be paying MS money for every iPod sold.

Yup. And to top it off, MS turned against the vendors who did sign on and decided to compete directly against them with an incompatible system.

Granted, I don't have any wma files, but it is rather arrogant of Apple to have locked out the wma support that is built in to the ipod's decoding chip. Choice is good, people.

There was never any truly built-in support for WMA on the iPod. There was a software codec that PortalPlayer offered for sale, but it would have needed rewriting to work with the OS Apple used on the iPod.

 

[MrFirework]

Plus...

It's certainly not "Arrogant" of Apple to not support wma playback on the iPod - they'd have to license the right to use the format from Microsoft...

I think Apple has no need for wma... the ITS/iPod combo works perfectly. Start using M$ formats, decoders, etc... watch the crashes and glitches start piling up.

Nope. No need for it. It would make their product inferior to what it is without wma support.