Everyone is arguing this on technical merits.

This reason the iPod is so successful is because it is fashionable and stupid simple to operate. The reason that the Zune 1.0 will tank is because it is needlessly complex and ugly (Brown? WTF were they thinking?). I suspect Zune 2.0 will be a bit more trendy, but it typical MS fashion, it still will fail the usability/complexity test.

When a 15 year old cheerleader can update or buy her musicwhile doing her hair and talking on the phone, the product has a chance. The iPod manages to be that easy. The Zune? Not so much. When the unit is attractive enough to inspire copycats, then the product has arrived. The Zune? Who wants something that looks like it was made out of sewer jello?

MS just doesn't understand the concept of "simple". While Apple gets ragged on about not offering enough choice or options, they do this for very good reasons, they are attempting to keep things easy. The more complex the device is, especially in the consumer electronics market, the less likely people will be to adopt it.

** So it's totally and utterly indestructable? I find that very hard to believe.***

I said "small and doesn't scratch". STOP changing what I said. This is what every ipod lover tries to do when confronted with facts.

Yep, the iPod basically has a cult, its the google of MP3 players.

Pretty good review. And more balanced then others.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/15/zune-review/

I am sticking with the iPod - at least iTunes does not DRM my personally ripped MP3s.

Doesn't look like customers are too excited about it so far...

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061115-055514-9496r

I have a....

Home network with 4 PC's and a SBS 2003 server.
Xbox 360
3rd generation Ipod
Brand new Zune.

All of my PC's share a large music collection off of the server via a shared drive...call it S:\muzac if you will.

With windows media player all computers monitor this folder....and anyone can add music to the folder. Only the Windows Media Player users can see the new music added by someone else.....Itunes can NOT.

My Ipod was one of the lucky 8 month battery failures....and apple told me to basically FR@CK off. So I got another battery at my cost somewhere else.

My wife’s new Zune is streaming music, photos and video to our 360 and using our large music folder. It works great, has great features and she loves it.

I will sale my POS Ipod, or shoot it next time I sight in my hunting rifle after I buy my self a Zune.

I predict the Zune will be a success and that eventually with more features added through Microsoft updates it will take a large part of the Ipod market share.

I dont have nothing against Apple products....I think they are no better or worse than other products just way over priced. I laugh when somebody talks about MS DRM....especially compared to the Apple DRM tactics.

It's too early to even begin to judge the success of this effort, really.

A bloodbath was predicted when Microsoft decided to pit a little program called Internet Explorer against a giant called Netscape. A similar demise was predicted for the Xbox when it was introduced to do battle with the Playstation2.

Microsoft isn't a great innovator. They're doing what they typically do: They arrive late in the game, and then they begin to relentlessly and mercilessly grind the competition down with their infinite resources. They enter a battle for the long haul.

I'm no fan. They're a predatory monopoly. But anyone who writes off the Zune effort at this stage simply doesn't know their history well. It's foolish and naive to make those predictions at the present time.

I find it humorous that the Zune is bringing out all kinds of people defending Microsoft as if they were a good guy. Not that Apple is totally innocent but they are the less evil of the two.

I seem to be missing something. I don’t have an iPod, or the like, and I’m not sure how this stuff works. iPod and Zune MP3 music and video come from online stores like Amazon? You pay for the songs, you own the rights to play the song, maybe even the right to back them up so you don’t loose your investment when your Zune, or iPod, gets run over by a truck.

Does a Zune need a service, other than a network/hotspot provider, to exchange MP3 or videos or can two Zunes walk up to one another on the street and exchange data like a palm pilot. What keeps this Wifi of Mass Data from deploying it’s payload to another WMDs like a mobile Napster?

Not that I really care, I have no need for either of these products, but are next years headlines going to be about Sony going bankrupt and anti pirating laws for MP3 wifi players?

I got a black one yesterday and it works great. I even streamed music from it to my 360.

http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/zune-marketp...

Just wow. People get what they deserve, I suppose.

Zune = too little too late to the market.

It is going to bomb, because the Ipod already has gotten all the attention and whatever niches it left behind were already taken up by other MP3 players.

Again, until I can connect it to my head unit and control it FROM the head unit whilst it shows song data on the head unit in my car, I don't care. My iPod has a specific adapter box that works fantasticly. Maybe the Zune will have these eventually, and I'm sure that eventually I'll need to replace my aging iPod photo 30gig but until then, iPod it is.

From all the reviews I've seen it is a typical version 1 product.

I've no doubt that it will improve over time. I'm sure that the Zune in a year's time will be more compact, have better software (why the hell does it have its own media player rather than using WMP?!) and store, look prettier and have a decent range of accessories. Maybe the wireless feature will be useful by then as well. Hopefully the Microsoft-only points currency will not be the only way of buying music online for Zune too. However what will next year's iPod bring to the table?

Hopefully this will bring enough competition to make Apple start innovating with the iPod again, instead of incremental updates and restyles.

I don't see it threatening the iPod in the short term - seems a lot of people who are buying it would never buy an iPod anyway because they hate Apple, or they hate items which are popular.