Zune .. the overhyped flop of 2006

This review in the Chicago Sun-Times pretty much says everything I've been saying about the Zune since I first started reading about it. Anytime Microsoft tries to foray into the "cool" sphere (where Apple so clearly dominates), it's a laughable, pathetic failure. The Zune shows they still have learned nothing.

"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.

You'll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry's Bizarro World, where users aren't allowed to do anything that isn't in the industry's direct interests... [Microsoft] has already given the music industry the other thing the industry has been demanding from Apple: a kickback on every player sold.

"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it," said Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group. "So it's time to get paid for it."

Well, Morris is just a big, clueless idiot, of course. Do you honestly want morons like him to have power over your music player?

I give MS some credit for carving out a space for themselves in the video game console industry. But you have to realize they accomplished that out of sheer monetary power. Another major factor is the fact that they had some influence over the supply and quality of the content the Xbox was designed to deliver: Xbox video games. (One of the first things they did was buy Bungie, a Mac game developer whose Halo: Combat Evolved property was just too good to let them develop it for the Mac first.) They don't have that kind of power over music, even though they've cozied up with the music industry as much as possible (to the detriment of the consumer, of course).

Anyway it's not to say there won't be people who wind up enjoying their Zune experience, but it's more likely that the iPod will continue to command the lion's share of the MP3-player market this Christmas.