Zune lacks iPod polish - US reviewers

 

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Posted on 10 Nov 2006 at 08:28

Two of the leading technology columnists in the US have given their first impressions of the Zune portable media player and were largely underwhelmed by Microsoft's rival to the iPod.

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg acknowledges that it does have some good points - the user interface and navigation for instance - but on the whole Zune falls short of the standards set by Apple.

'This first Zune has too many compromises and missing features to be as good a choice as the iPod for most users, he wrote. 'The hardware feels rushed and incomplete. It is 60 per cent larger and 17 per cent heavier than the comparable iPod. It has much worse battery life for music than the iPod or than Microsoft claims - at least two hours less than the iPod's, in my tests. Despite the larger screen, many album covers look worse than they do on the iPod. And you can't share music libraries between computers like you can with iTunes.'

Mossberg notes that the Zune has fewer accessories than the iPod - 100 compared to 3,000 - and 1.5 million fewer songs on offer through Zune Marketplace, the clumsily named equivalent of the iTunes Store. Users also have to pay up front for Zune Marketplace points in blocks of $5 or more and points do not equate to cents. Seventy-nine points will buy a song that costs, in reality, 99 cents.

Zune's one stand-out feature is the ability to wirelessly share songs between players. While noting that it works well - 15 seconds to send a song and just two seconds to transfer a photo - the New York Times' David Pogue says it is 'weird' that Zunes can only talk to each other.

'Who'd build a Wi-Fi device that can't connect to a wireless network - to sync with your PC, for example? Nor to an Internet hot spot, to download music directly?' he asked.

But that is a minor issue compared to the 'draconian' DRM on swapped songs.

'You can play a transmitted song only three times, all within three days,' Pogue wrote. 'After that, it expires. You're left with only a text tag that shows up on your PC so that - how convenient! - you can buy the song from Microsoft's store.'

You cannot resend a song to the same Zune, or pass a song that you have received onto a third person, even if you own the copyright.

'What's really nuts is that the restrictions even stomp on your own musical creations,' he wrote. 'Microsoft's literature suggests that if you have a struggling rock band, you could "put your demo recordings on your Zune" and "when you're out in public, you can send the songs to your friends". What it doesn't say: "And then three days later, just when buzz about your band is beginning to build, your songs disappear from everyone's Zunes, making you look like an idiot".'

Both writers agree that competition between Microsoft and Apple will be good for consumers, but that at the moment there is no competition.

'Competition is good and all,' Pogue wrote. 'But what, exactly, is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication - in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features - just to indulge Microsoft's "we want some o' that" envy.'

He acknowledges that 'Version 1.0 of Microsoft Anything is stripped-down and derivative' followed by several years of slow but relentless refinement and marketing and that we can expect, indeed Microsoft has promised, new features, models and accessories. Of course all this only applies at present if you live in the US, has Microsoft has made no commitment to releasing Zune anywhere else.

'For now, though, this game is for watching, not playing,' wrote Pogue. 'It may be quite a while before brown,' referring to Zune's bravest colour option (with green trim), 'is the new white.'