Go Apple! Go Microsoft!

[Zunerama Ed.]

Apple innovations are good for Microsoft, and vice versa.

In my judgment, Microsoft leap-frogged Apple in some ways with the Zune player.

I think it improved the experience in several important ways:
  - with the warm plastic finish
  - with the larger screen
  - the controls are improved. When I use a video iPod, the click-wheel seems gargantuan - - taking up way too much space for what it does.
  - the Zune's player UI is easier to use - making iPod's text menus seem almost like a throwback to DOS

Now, is that the end of the story..? Clearly not. Apple will update iPod, and leapfrog those features of Zune. (Some aspects of iPhone will no doubt be integrated into the next iPod update.) So I think we're in a healthy cycle of these companies raising the bar for each other.

Nothing spurs innovation like competition. Case in point: while Apple made superb advances in its hardware controls like the scroll-wheel / click-wheel developments, it did not significantly improve its player's UI display for 6 years.

Then Zune releases a much-improved graphical UI, and most Apple-watchers are certain that Apple will abandon its text-based UI on iPod, and never go back.

Every player is destined to be made quasi-obsolete, by either its own replacement models or from those of its competitors. It's what makes this area of technology exciting.

So I say... Go Apple! Go Microsoft!

[Jander]

Here here!

[xxxoom]

bah humbug!!!

[Zunerama Ed.]

No love from xoom today. 

[GK86]

Honestly I usually like the underdog.  Because they will try harder to be number 1.  Look at the xbox as an example.  It was the first to have a build-in hard drive and now every new system has a HDD.  It was the first to have a unified online system, custom soundtracks, lan games etc.  Fast foward 4 years and xbox 360 is number 1. 

[Antonella]

I like both of them being around because it pushes the prices down and keeps the innovations coming faster. They are both under huge pressure to compete. I just bought Zune after doing a lot of research because it had the best overall package of features for the price. It really doesn't matter too much even if the Zune were a flop because I can keep using my Zune regardless.

[Blonderator]

I sure hope they don't add touch screen to the iPod. If so, I may consider selling my Zune, even though it is an awesome player

I hate when I buy technology at the last minute and then it gets updated. Like my Macbook, I bought it, then a week later they double the HDD and RAM size for the same model that I bought, for the same price. I didn't even get a discount.

[Zunerama Ed.]

I think I will like the touchscreen, and I'm pretty excited to see how well Apple and its inevitable imitators implement it.

However there are some benefits to controls that  give you tactile feedback, like the Zune's control pad and the Apple's clickwheel.

For me, there are many times when I'll be driving, reading, lounging, running, snowboarding, etc... where I'll be listening to music and I want to skip a song that I'm listening to. I can reach my Zune and do this without having to look at it. I'm not sure I could do that with a touchscreen model.

Similarly, if I hear a song I want to crank up, I can do the volume adjustment without looking at my Zune. I can reach for it in a pocket, armband, or just on the couch beside me, and work the controls without having to hold it in front of me.

I'm not sure if that would be possible with a gadget that used touchscreen for all of its controls. How would your fingers sense that they're hovering over the proper part of the touchscreen display?

Not a huge deal maybe, but for me it's a potential drawback of a pure touchscreen, compared to the Zune and iPod controls used currently.

[GK86]

For me, there are many times when I'll be driving, reading, lounging, running, snowboarding, etc... where I'll be listening to music and I want to skip a song that I'm listening to. I can reach my Zune and do this without having to look at it. I'm not sure I could do that with a touchscreen model.

Similarly, if I hear a song I want to crank up, I can do the volume adjustment without looking at my Zune. I can reach for it in a pocket, armband, or just on the couch beside me, and work the controls without having to hold it in front of me.

Great example of why I love the controlpad.  It started to snow this afternoon in NYC.  So before I headed outside I put on my playlist.  If I wanted to skip, rasie/lower the volume, or rewind/FF, I could do it without having to take out my Zune and without fear of getting my Zune wet.

[RageKage]

Fast foward 4 years and xbox 360 is number 1. 

And they stay that way with Live, helping fans and customers, providing a whole crapload of content, and have fun while keeping it semi-cheap.

The Zune team should listen to that.

[Dr.zune]

Zune Live. Plain and simple. Now THAT would boost its popularity.

[Sw0rdf1sh]

I've always said to follow the progressive.  Microsoft is going at it raw and with purpose with the Zune, and they have delivered enough thus far to make me a believer.   They will seriously have to make up some ground on Zune Marketplace however, because although it's search capabilities rule, the content is found lacking.

I'm interested in both companies success, and hopeful one day collaboration or at least "integration" of file sets.

Microsoft knows they are the big boy on the block, and generating that type of revenue means much more innovation than Apple....just spread out across many platforms/systems.

But heck yeah.... Go both of ya's!

[AK Water]

If the 2nd Generation Zune is nearly as good as Alex Alberchet (he claims his buddy is working on the 2nd gen Zune and said, "It is mind-blowing") says it is then I will be buying it.

[xxxoom]

zune still has a long way to go:

1--no video store (this is inexcusable)
2--the wifi is practically useless, since nobody has a zune to connect with and you can't upload download wirelessly. therefore, what good is it? it just takes up space.
3--you wouldn't even know if someone with a zune walked by anyway because it doesn't beep or anything to let you know.

zune has potential. but it won't be long before apple trumps them again, and zune will be an also-ran.

[Zunerama Ed.]

I think it all comes down to "will". Does Microsoft have the will to continue building Zune, with new players, more features, videos, games, etc.

If they do, they won't abandon the Zune initiative just because Apple leapfrogs them with the next iPod. It is a certainty that the next iPod model will leapfrog Zune (and leapfrog the current iPod models).

That's just player evolution, and if Microsoft is serious about Zune, they'll already be working on their next leapfrogger.