Microsoft Releases the Zune
09.14.06 - 11:57pm
I’ve ignored the Zune over the last couple of months but I figured with it officially launching it deserves atleast a little bit of recognition. Microsoft has been rather tight lipped about this project which is rather surprising. Yesterday, Microsoft released some press material which included a specifications sheet and the pictures that you see below. When initially looking at the design I was a bit thrown off, the top half of the unit looks great but then you get down to the interface and I did a double take. The interface is just straight up ugly. Aesthetically the bottom half just clashes hard with the top half and was a huge turnoff for me. Here are a few pictures just to illustrate what I mean.
Besides the looks, the hardware itself is well thought out and something that I’d consider buying if the price was right. When you compare the Zune to the current top-shelf Apple iPod the Zune gets spanked in regards to capacity but there are a lot of stats that are missing from the Zune including battery life, weight, actual dimensions, and most importantly the price. The Zune comes equipped with a 30 gig hard drive, 3 inch screen, an FM Tuner, and most importantly, Wi-Fi connectivity. What this potentially means is that the Zune will be capable of connecting to laptops, other Zunes, and the Internet to create some sort of huge interconnected media web. Initially one Zune will be able to share its music for a limited time with another Zune however it won’t take very long for this time limitation to be conquered. Another good feature of the Zune is the ability to play WMA, WMV, MP3, MPEG-4, H. 264, and AAC files and display JPEG photos. With the support for multiple file formats Microsoft will have on up on Apple.
With the hardware that Microsoft has initally placed within the Zune, there are a lot of possible uses for the Zune. Since the Zune features Wi-Fi connectivity I would love to see some form of a RSS reader included within the Zune, the interface located within Microsoft’s Max software would be perfect. Enabling the Zune to link up to any computer with a Wi-Fi connection would also be great as the Zune could potentially be used as a huge thumb drive with no USB cable requirements. Once last hot feature that I’d like to see built into the Zune would be some form of video output so that it could be plugged into a TV. Around my house we use our Macbooks to stream video between each other and to stream a feed to our TV, if Microsoft could do the same thing between the Zune, a PC, and a TV then they’d have a winning combination.
The initial shipping features of the Zune don’t really make it stand out however as the product matures and Microsoft dumps more money into it I can easily seeing this product putting up a good fight against the iPod. With Microsoft bankrolling this operation it will either become wildly successful or flop however with the success of the Xbox and the lessons learned with Live! Microsoft should have a chance at taking a bite out of Apple.
Links
Microsoft Zune Official Announcement
Microsoft Zune Press Kit with Pictures and Specifications Sheet
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