Can the new Zune gain on the iPod?

personally i think the zune is better. most of the apple people on here are just saying that ipod is better because of the name. most dont even know the features of the zune. they dont want to open their narrow minds for something new to come in.

I own both Zune and iPod and find that each is good in it’s own way. It is good that we have choices in mp3 players.

Competition will cause the players to constantly improve which will be to our benefit. So Go Zune Go iPod!

“From all appearances, the latest Zune is indeed an improvement over the original. It’s slimmer and smaller, positioning itself to compete with Apple’s most popular iPod model, the nano.”

I own them both and the ipod is much nicer in appearance however you can download music to them both and it sounds great.

One way to see who has better trust in whose products is to check the manufacturers stock prices over at least 2 to 3 years. Apple (AAPL) vs MicroSoft (MSFT). After looking at the charts, whom does the marketplace judge to have the sounder approach?

I think that Microsoft isn’t really trying to completely take over the market yet and they definately have something up their sleeves. However, i’ve owned an iPod, Zune, and SanDisk and yet i think the only reason the iPod completely dominates its opponents is because of its size and marketability. The iPods designs easily outshines the Zunes in the way it has a thinner version, however, microsoft is starting to get into the act by having a much thinner and more slim design. Even though i think Microsoft will not be able to beat Apple yet, I think that they have gained a lot of ground compared to their first generation of Zunes. Overall, the iPod just seems to have too much innovation and seems to meet many customers satisfaction and the only way that can be beat is if any company designs a new innovative product that has something the public has never seen before but would absolutely love to have. If a company can do that, wrap it in a pretty little case, and offer it at a lower cost I think Apple might actually have to step it up. However so far no company has had anything even close to being able to either make Apple have to lower its prices or even make Apple have to become the “Copier”.

People make me laugh I currently own the first version of the zune and my son has the 80gig ipod, the problem is people listen to the hype when they dont even know what they are talking about.my zune has a 1 month or 3 month plan (15 dollars a month or 45 for 3 months)you can rent music but heres the kicker you can get a program called soundtaxi take drm off and can give music to who ever you want, you cant do that with ipod (because you would have to buy music first)I can put movies and music videos and podcasts on my zune my son gets on itunes and just program your folders right and bam all video and pictures got directly to my zune and my screen is bigger. so it just comes down to know how and to me I think my zune is better!!!!!!!!

Technically the Zune is competition to the iPod, but its real role has been to illuminate how superior the iPod actually is. Without the Zune (and other contenders), one would have to wonder, “Couldn’t there be something better than the iPod?” Thanks to the Zune, we know the answer: no, there couldn’t.

It is sometimes sick how much Apple Fanboys act brain washed…

Lets all face it, if we only let Apple produce iPods, every year they would just give us 40 more gigs (which by the time you’re at 80, is kind of pointless) and charge us the same cost. I am still confused why I should be paying the same cost for a new iPod as I paid for my iPod 2 years ago… Especially since technology costs decrease.

This is as rediculous as Apple originally charging 600$ for a iPhone that they admited costed ~300$ to produce…

So, I welcome more competition and hopefully some price decreases. Plus, Microsoft may never be at the front of the curve, but when you hear them start rumbling behind you, you are afraid. It’s hard to match a $250 Billion market Cap.

Microsoft won’t be able to touch the ipod. The Zune is a great product, but it’ll be the poor marketing that will drive this product into the grave.

1) The entered years too late, after Apple gained 70% market share.

2) For years, they advertised “play for sure.” The Zune was not a “play for sure device, which meant that you would have to download all your music all over again for an untested product. Who’d want to do that?

3) The Zune marketplace was clunky compared to itunes and confusing. The first impression was glitchy software. It’s still no match for Apple.

4) The shared music feature hardly worked and was so full of red tape, it was just pathetic.

Microsoft’s Zune is a good product, but it’s just another MP3 player like everyone else competing for market share. If they came into the market soon after Apple came out with the ipod, Microsoft would enjoy another virtual monopoly.

Trust me, Apple isn’t in the game to be “innovative”. They’re trying to make money, and they’ve found a way to do it by appealing to the eye. Their products aren’t particularly innovative or revolutionary — they are just dressed up in a nice case and put in a cute box that makes every one want one. I’ve heard horrible stories about the new iPods having horrible sound and video quality. I had an iPod Nano (the slim version from the last year or so) that never worked right, had terrible sound, and broke twice. I haven’t purchased a Zune, and I’m by no means an MS fanboy, but I have seen the Zune. It’s screensize and video/audio quality are amazing. We all expected bugs in the first iteration, and MS will get them worked out. Apple fanboys always seem so sure of their products, but in the end it’s just expensive crap.

Whatever… I have had the same Ipod for over 3 years and it still works fine. I’m waiting for the inevitable price war between these two companies.

I don’t know if this one will sell good, but the new Ipod nano sucks. I got one from walmart to try it out last week and i just doesn’t fit in my front pockets nicely anymore.

Like last years model: I could lose it in my pants and find myself digging for it sometimes, but that new one just didn’t fit and it also was annoying when I was sitting down.

The new Zun may do pretty good since it is more like the old Nano vs the new one.

I vote we have one brand of car, one house builder, one brand of toilet paper, one brand of computer, one brand of car wax, one brand of light bulb, one brand of…. and everyone else is a copycat. Come on…

Some car manufacturer way back when decided to offer power steering to make it easier to turn the wheel and every other manufacturer followed suit. Did that make them copycats?

When you buy an iPod (like I have) you’re buying an interface, not technology. They just told suppliers of mp3 hardware devices that they’re going to put their components together and make it look pretty and make it easy to use. They just opened the eyes of every mp3 manufacturer that were making a typical non-ergonomic devices that everyone found complicated and uninviting. The strength of engineers does not lie in ergonomics and design.

Apple recognizes this and they hire artists to refine the goods that their engineers make therefore making them appealing to the masses.

I have been a loyal iPod customer, purchasing 7 different iPods as gifts or for myself (iPod Classics, Nanos and a Shuffle). However, I’ve been hoping that the Zune could offer not only a comparable experience, but also a better price point. Why is Microsoft, who openly acknowledges that their product is playing catch-up with the iPod, pricing their product the same when it is not of the same quality?

I would be willing to give the Zune a chance if their prices were more competitive. I am not alone either; most of my friends all have iPods and refuse to buy another iPod since Apple has no flexibility in their pricing. I know more than a dozen people that feel this way and we can’t be alone in our feeling that Apple is committing a form of price gauging. Only one major price adjustment has been made on the iPods of $50 for the hard drive based classics since I’ve been a customer and Apple.

The technology for the iPod classics and the Zunes is old and instead of passing the cost savings on to the customer with the economies of scale Apple has achieved, it pays for more over-priced designer black T-Shirts for Steve Jobs. All you get if you upgrade your iPod is more memory, which is nothing special. Apparently Microsoft wants the same premium without earning it by creating something revolutionary.

I can understand why buying an iPhone or iTouch costs what it does, it’s revolutionary, but the classic iPods and Nanos are not.

Apple has not been flexible with their prices, because they haven’t had to. If Microsoft wants to make inroads and get a sizeable Zune audience beyond the people who dislike Apple, they need to compensate a customer for the high cost of switching. C’mon Microsoft give a reason to jump off the Apple ship and I’ll happily recycle my iPods, otherwise stop wasting your time with another brick of a MP3 player. Maybe they’ll cut the price to $199 again that would be a good time to try it out.

In response to the gripe about Amazon’s MP3 service, it rocks, it adds it right to your iTunes and the customer support is awesome, they actually call you if you have a problem. I tried it last night and was impressed by the immediate response. I’m no longer buying from iTunes if I can help it and switching to Amazon.

Putting the wifi features aside for the moment. The Creative Zen Vision M player was the *BEST* feature filled hard drive based player you won’t hear about because Creative discontinued it. Codec support (video and audio formats), bright video screen, touchpad, etc. Near seamless integration. The ZUNE 2.0 is more like 1.4X than 2.X. For the time being I’m satisfied with my Zen Vision M.. it will probably work until something much better comes along.
If you like what the Zen Vision M represents, buy the Zen Vision W (widescreen) as it’s not discontinued, yet.

I own a Zune. Previously I owned an ipod. No problem with either. Zune with bigger screen definitely has an advantage. Also, I am thankful for Microsoft for introducing competition otherwise we all be buying ipod touch at may be double the price.

Apple is clearly ahead… I mean who would EVER want a brown zune? I find them so ugly. Seems like for the last couple of years micosoft has just been playing catchup-and copy……

Apple lovers are jerks…you make everyone who owns an Apple product look bad…

Ok I admit it I bought a Zune. Frankly I despise my daughters ipod. The software is well a pain in the a** to use and don’t try to move/backup the files before you flatten the PC they live on. Ohh I am sure that the iPod works much better on OS-X then XP.
Actually the Zune has been flawless. It works without a steep learning curve and the screen is outstanding. I bought mine after owning a Zen V Plus. I needed something that I could actually read without my glasses on at the gym. The Zune rip software makes finding the album art as simple as it could possibly be. I wanted a brown one but they only had black. I for one am completly satisfied with the Zune. I was even more satisfied with the $199 sale price I got it for. No I don’t see MS burning Apple in the market until they actually invent something new but the Zune is a decent device made even better by the new form factor.

i don’t own an ipod or zune, just a cheap $15.00 rca player. but i do plan to buy an iPod Touch in 2-3 months. i honestly don’t know why anyone would want a Zune, i guess only as MSFT supporters and folks who hate Apple. i think Zune is good, it’s called competition. i’d never buy one, but to each his own. why spend hundreds of dollars to buy the 3rd or 4th best mp3 player on the market, when you can spend the same and get arguably the best - iPod. even if you hate Apple, get a SanDisk, that’s better than Zune. iTunes has more to download & buy than Urge and just a better overall experience. lastly, Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player market, but they did reinvent it with iTunes/iPod. as always MSFT waits for others to build the car, succeed with the car, then they copy the car blue prints and try to take over. usually the succeed, but as in their search engine, they will fail with the mp3 market, Apple is too deeply entrenched (for now). only way Apple can screw this up is if they go Xerox route and get complacent & lazy and let others move in on their turf and push them into the corner. because right now, like Xerox is linked forever with copying (”Xerox this for me”), the iPod is forever linked with the mp3.

I find the xBox vs. Sony analogy as a very weak defense for MicroSoft because it does not hold up in the MP3 market space, and here is why:

Apple in no way shape or form is a falling apart, asleep at the wheel, Sony Corporation - not even close.

If you like Redmond and want to buy a Zune that’s great. But the wifi is useless - unless you happen to stumble into someone else that has a Zune (not likely) and actually want to talk to them and for some reason share music with them (Welcome to the uncomfortable).

These products are absolute wanna-be iPods that are clones as best they can be in every way, shape and form. But now Apple totally re-designed the nano, and this Zune looks like a fairly square version of an obsolete product in the old nano.

Microsoft is not inventing. Redmond copies and then tries to buy its way into a market. Look at xBox. In only one quarter since its existance did it make any money. The Zune is destined to lose money for MS for the next 3-5 years - if they even keep it around that long before dumping it and trying something else.

Redmond would be better served inventing something new, something visionary that consumers want, rather than gloming onto an already largely settled market.

The worst thing about the Zune?

Redmond does not want to increase the competition in the market place, they want to squelch it. Redmond wants to knife it’s own partners in SanDisk, Sony and Creative. Once MS has canibalized it’s own licensing game from their “partners” it becomes a two-horse race between Apple and Microsoft, and it is at that point Redmond gets the default number two position and has some type of market share to work with, but this hurts customer choice and experience.

But Redmond does not care about that, they care about winning - the consumer be damned.

Apple didn’t go at this in the same manner. They went to play and make a great seamlessly vertical product, which they did, and it took off.

Zunes are going to be about 1 year or so behind Apple products - and with MP3 players that might as well be like buying 20 year-old cars.

Podcasts finally arrive at Zune. Wow, welcome to the past 3 years folks. Video and TV shows? Nodda. Viruses and Bugs - oh yes, sign me up please.

“From all appearances, the latest Zune is indeed an improvement over the original.”

A superbly sophomoric statement. A brick would be an improvement.

Harry is right, Microsoft has no ability to create, they simply copy - and then do a poor job of marketing their bricks.

apple ipod got the way it was beacuse of a combination of their online store Itunes, and the offering of a new technology i.e. digital songplay. zune is just a clone

You are right Never count MSFT out. Some laughed at the first XBOX too. How do you think sony feels about that now? Look for Zune III to be the reald deal - the one that takes on Apple. Right now, you are right - 2nd place is a nice goal. The zune screen size audio quality and video capabilities are better - so MSFT let the world know. HIRE A REAL ADVERSTISING FIRM.

what!?!? The new Zune isn’t available in BROWN?!?

microsoft might do better if they considered the consumer before their partners - but they arent interested in innovation to excite the consumer, just tedious copying of those who do innovate.
The zune has no chance of overhauling the ipod - the game is over; the iPod won a long time ago.

Please be careful when analyzing iTunes competitors. The press keeps making the mistake of comparing iTunes with Amazon’s MP3 service: that’s comparing apples to oranges! iTunes is much more than a music store: it’s a music organizer, disc burner, iPod controller, video player, etc., etc. For Amazon’s 89 cents a tune, you get nothing but an MP3, when you buy it on/with iTunes you can load it onto your iPod, play the music, make playlists, burn CD’s, etc. For the ten cents difference, you’re getting a lot for your money.

jf: It’s true that they’re different, Rich — but the two are not quite apples and oranges. When you buy a song from Amazon, it’s automatically loaded into iTunes. So you could actually choose to both buy songs from Amazon and manage them in iTunes.

“So we have the flexibility to take these in a different direction where our customers, our partners and we are ready.”

Funny how Microsoft is always touting its partnering abilities when they’ve demonstrated their willingness to stab their partners in the back if convenient (PlaysForSure).

Wonder how Microsoft’s music “partners” (Sony, Creative, Samsung, MTV, etc. etc.) feel about the new Zune…