Jason Dunn
11-04-2006, 11:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-11222-1.html?tag=blog' target='_blank'>http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-11222-1.html?tag=blog</a><br /><br /></div><em>"At the risk of being called an Apple fanboy, a Microsoft basher and a dog kicker, I gotta say the Zune does not impress me. Microsoft recently sent an emissary to CNET with three Zunes to demonstrate Redmond's new offensive against the Apple/iPod juggernaut. While the Zune certainly has some interesting features, such as Wi-Fi capability and a decent-sized screen for a front-pocket device, the overall theme of the day appeared to be that this should be a considered a first-generation device that nails the basics and is easily expandable through software to learn new tricks. Fair enough, except for two things: hard drive-based music players have been around for a long time--since before Apple unveiled its first iPod five years ago. And Microsoft has an aircraft carrier stuffed with cash moored off its Redmond campus that should allow it to fund a top notch, me-too device."</em><br /><br />This is the kind of attitude that the Zune team is going to have to contend with over the next few months as their products launches and rolls out, and I can't say that I entirely disagree with him. I get the strong feeling that if the Zune team had another six months of development time they could have really taken advantage of the wireless and made it more than a "me too" device. I get the strong suspicion that since the Zune team started in January of 2006, the hardware design is more or less an off-the-shelf design from Toshiba that likely didn't get much in the way of tweaks from the Zune team. I could be wrong on that, but if many people think it looks like a prototype, well, that just might be closer to the truth than most of us realize.