new Zune, touch competition

[SAWYER]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/10/is-this-the-zune-hd/

I like my Zune 80 over any ipod I have owned besides the touch, if this is as good as the touch I will buy day one

 

[Parasitic]

Did Microsoft finally add in unicode support to Zune hardware and the software yet? How about OSX support?

If both are done then I'd be interested in trying one out. Valiant effort by MS though...they seem to have come a long way since the original 30GB Zune.

 

[QueBert]

won't be as good as the touch. Reasons why:

1. accessories. Zune has like 10 accessories, ok maybe I'm exaggerating, but it doesn't have many. and a lot of the ones I have seen blow chunks.
2. iTunes store (applications) I have spent maybe $300 on apps for my Touch. As much as I like it as a music and video player, the apps are what pushes it over the top. Even if MS were to launch a competing store, it would never measure up. I used Beatmaker on my Touch to make a beat, which I ended up selling to a dude up the street for $20. No way I could make money with a Zune, even if it's only 20 bucks

this looks interesting and will probably sell well to the crowd who hates everything Apple. And always proclaim the Zune to be vastly superior in every aspect. Beyond that, it's just a Touch 2 years + late to the game. I will laugh at all the Apple haters who buy one and tell me how awesome it is.

<3 my Touch, fuck all the other iPods but the Touch is close to perfect.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: QueBert
won't be as good as the touch. Reasons why:

1. accessories. Zune has like 10 accessories, ok maybe I'm exaggerating, but it doesn't have many. and a lot of the ones I have seen blow chunks.
2. iTunes store (applications) I have spent maybe $300 on apps for my Touch. As much as I like it as a music and video player, the apps are what pushes it over the top. Even if MS were to launch a competing store, it would never measure up. I used Beatmaker on my Touch to make a beat, which I ended up selling to a dude up the street for $20. No way I could make money with a Zune, even if it's only 20 bucks

this looks interesting and will probably sell well to the crowd who hates everything Apple. And always proclaim the Zune to be vastly superior in every aspect. Beyond that, it's just a Touch 2 years + late to the game. I will laugh at all the Apple haters who buy one and tell me how awesome it is.

<3 my Touch, fuck all the other iPods but the Touch is close to perfect.

I'd love my Touch more if it'd stop being an emotional little bitch and drop wifi connection intermittenly.

 

[Bacstar]

oooooh...was thinking of getting the Zune 120 but now I'll have to wait and see what other details come out on this.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If it has Windows Mobile, and a browser with Flash support (or -maybe- Silverlight 2+) then it could be real competition.

There are 100 times as many of us Windows developers as there are xcoders, and Flash support would add another huge army of developers.

 

[destrekor]

hmmm. That looks something sexy. Looking forward to announcements regarding the specifics of it. Like Dave said above... if it has Windows Mobile that'll be nice (though I just got a WinMo phone, haha). I :heart: my Zune 120. The iPod Touch is a nice ipod, about the only ipod I really like, but I do dislike flash players, just too expensive for storage, and I have such an eccentric music collection, and I dislike having to choose between what I want to have available for listening, rather have everything I own on the player that way at any moment I can listen to what I feel like at the time.

That's what I fear with a Zune Touch, it not having enough storage or being too expensive for large capacity.
But being it's a Zune, and I love the Zune software (Zune Pass) and my 120... I dunno. Maybe sometime down the road...

 

[SAWYER]

These tool bags who act like it's a war are ridiculous, they are electronics people. I like them all

 

[SunnyD]

Let it be WinMo... Silverlight/Flash support, SD card slot, built in mic and headset speaker, Wifi, bluetooth and skype... and I'll laugh at apple.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Let it be WinMo... Silverlight/Flash support, SD card slot, built in mic and headset speaker, Wifi, bluetooth and skype... and I'll laugh at apple.

Yeah, Microsoft has a serious ability to trounce Apple if they put enough effort into the Zune brand. The Windows brand has far more developer and customization support.

Originally posted by: Sawyer
These tool bags who act like it's a war are ridiculous, they are electronics people. I like them all

It's not a fanboy war for everyone. Some people take brands far too seriously, and I can't speak for everyone... but I prefer the Zune for the better software. That, I enjoy playback on my Zune more.

I have to say to look at a Zune 120, for example, one has to compare it to an iPod Classic. The Touch is a different world, and a nice player. But I despise the original iPods because they are so... meh. Ugly as sin for one, and the UI is ugh.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Let it be WinMo... Silverlight/Flash support, SD card slot, built in mic and headset speaker, Wifi, bluetooth and skype... and I'll laugh at apple.

and Apple will laugh as you as they continue to dominate the PMP market. MS could add every feature in the world to this Zune HD, and Apple still has nothing to worry about. BTW: Touch will have Flash support, probably before this Zune HD is even out.

I hope MS isn't actually trying to say it's High Def with the HD in the name. I could just see idiots buying it thinking it will do 1080p lol.

to destrekor, the iPods UI is pretty ugly, but Zunes is no better. And most iPods can be hacked to put Rockbox on. Rockbox is 451% better than Zunes UI. And Zune will probably never be able to be hacked to use it. I think every company that makes MP3 players except MS has a model or 2 or 3 that are Rockboxable.

MS won't be able to touch the Touch's interface. We have all these iPhone clones out there, and they all fail huge in one area, the UI.

 

[oogabooga]

In the engadget comment sections after the "Wake me up when (fanboy comment here)" this brought a smile to my face.

To The Max
To The Max @ Apr 10th 2009 7:00PM

wake ME up, before you go go.

Waiting on more details. I'm not particularly digging the way it looks (I like the way the touch looks better) but that screen.. if it is amazing, the rest of it can be as ugly as sin.

If they can make the interface nice, not compromise on any features they already have on existing zunes (you know, other than squircle which it doesn't look like it'll have..), and it's reasonably priced (ie it doesn't do as much as the ipod touch? charge a lot less) then I may finally upgrade my old ugly zune30. Unless it doesn't play marketplace subscription songs... I would cry so bad at how stupid that is.

 

[silverpig]

I think the app store alone will keep all iPod touch an iPhone users with apple. New customers could go either way but it'll take a few years before microsoft catches up with the app store.

 

[silverpig]

I think the app store alone will keep all iPod touch an iPhone users with apple. New customers could go either way but it'll take a few years before microsoft catches up with the app store.

 

[TwiceOver]

I really wish my Dell DJ would die so I could have a reason to get one of these new cool guy ridiculously expensive MP3 players.

 

[blurredvision]

I'm still rocking my original 30GB Zune from a launch-day purchase, and I love it. I bought my wife a Zune8 with the "squircle", but I hate it. This new Zune looks awesome, though, can't wait to see some details. Hopefully they'll announce it soon.

 

[dwell]

Microsoft, as usual, are two years behind.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Chris
Microsoft, as usual, are two years behind.

Two years behind what? You act as if they just announced an FM radio or something.

 

[dwell]

Originally posted by: peritusONE

Originally posted by: Chris
Microsoft, as usual, are two years behind.

Two years behind what? You act as if they just announced an FM radio or something.

The iPhone launched two years ago with a touch interface while Microsoft was still trying to clone the 2005 iPod. From the looks of it, nothing new is coming to the table with this Zune.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I love my Zune80 and my wife loves her Zune4. Combined with the ZunePass + keep 10, we're in musical heaven.

 

[DaveSimmons]

CodeProject.com already had over 2 million Windows developers as members before they added Java and web sections. If MS makes MS-app-store development reasonably easy using Visual Studio, their app store will fill up much, much faster than Apple's did.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: peritusONE
I'm still rocking my original 30GB Zune from a launch-day purchase, and I love it. I bought my wife a Zune8 with the "squircle", but I hate it. This new Zune looks awesome, though, can't wait to see some details. Hopefully they'll announce it soon.

I use to have the Zune 30, but a few months ago upgraded to the Zune 120, and don't regret that one bit. Added space gives me not a single limit to the amount of music I can put on it from the Zune Pass, and can do a lot of video too. Not to mention, it's quite a bit skinnier and just looks a lot better.
Squircle doesn't bother me one bit, in fact... it being a touch pad is super awesome. Can flick through the playlists real fast, and if you don't want touch, I think the touch itself can be disabled, otherwise you can also just use the directional features. It being oddly shaped is well... odd. But whatever, it's an attempt at being iconic, to set it apart from everything else.

Zune Touch... big thing is going to be cost/storage ratio. If it's $400 for 32gb, hell no. First, this is assuming it is flash storage to keep the player thin, which to compete with the Touch I would be surprised if they threw a hard drive in there... no, I would be totally shocked.
Hell, even if it's $300 for 32gb, unless it's like some godly WinMo device with a lot of great features, I wouldn't give up my Zune 120. $300 or less with 64gb or more of storage... regardless of features other than standard Zune and great touch interface, we might be talking a sale there.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Chris

Originally posted by: peritusONE

Originally posted by: Chris
Microsoft, as usual, are two years behind.

Two years behind what? You act as if they just announced an FM radio or something.

The iPhone launched two years ago with a touch interface while Microsoft was still trying to clone the 2005 iPod. From the looks of it, nothing new is coming to the table with this Zune.

And? Microsoft had a touch interface smartphone OS way before Apple came to the party.

Touch isn't revolutionary, no matter how much Apple brainwashes you into thinking it is. It's a nice feature, but until it's coupled with affordable, large capacity storage... big deal. Touch with 32gb, might as well make the damn thing a new version of the Nano. These days, with video and everything else, storage demands some attention. Apple just brainwashed everyone like it always does.
It's a great device, but far from worthy of the price and attention it's been commanding.

A Windows Mobile 6.5 answer to the iPod Touch? A truly full PMP, and offering great storage capacity? Other than brainwashing, Apple's current Touch lineup won't be able to touch the ZuneHD if it carries that feature set.

 

[Baked]

I been thinking about upgrading my Zune30, this might be it. If it plays, AVI and WMV video, I'm buying it for sure.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Chris

Originally posted by: peritusONE

Originally posted by: Chris
Microsoft, as usual, are two years behind.

Two years behind what? You act as if they just announced an FM radio or something.

The iPhone launched two years ago with a touch interface while Microsoft was still trying to clone the 2005 iPod. From the looks of it, nothing new is coming to the table with this Zune.

You don't even know anything about it, none of us do.

Besides, Microsoft wasn't trying to "clone" the iPod, it was trying to make a competitor. Not much you can do with a MP3 player besides put a screen on it and some buttons. Shit, the Zune even had a different interface with bigger text, bigger album art, customizable backgrounds, built-in wi-fi song sharing, and an FM radio.

So much for your clone theory.