Zune to beat iPod?

[Radelaide]

I, personally, don't want either. I had a great little 2GB MP3 player. I dropped it and broke it. But it was AU$100 and worked fine. Only issue was you had to "sync" it with WMP and it took light years to put songs on it.

If anyone can recommend a good MP3 player that has easy-to-use features and is just a click and drag, it would be awesome.

 

[Brett Alex]

I went back into the archives and found this.

I believe the iPod is winning and hasn't won yet. Why? because Zune is Microsoft and then have enough funding to keep the product line going for a while.

Anyone else want to bring this back from the dead and put in their 2 cents?

Which is funnily enough, opposite to Apple, the iPod basically gave them the funding they needed to bring their home computers back to a competitive level.

You asked for the loose change, so there it is.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Oddly enough, I now have a Zune... the 8GB model, as I prefer Flash drives to hard discs when I'm sticking it in my pocket. So far I'm enjoying it, especially with the Wi-Fi synching and the great FM tuner, but it seems a tad sluggish sometimes when paging through with the "back" button and I'd rather use a less processor-heavy synching program than the Zune software. (I synch from my Origami laptop, as it's what I carry with me when I travel, and it's 900MHz Celeron CPU often maxxes out when pushing video.)

I had a Shuffle, and between the two I think the Zune has better audio quality by a smidgen. Probably not enough to justify it over the other by itself, but the Zune also has a bigger screen and more storage for almost the same price as the equivalent-sized iPod Nano.

But I still think that the iPod brand is too well established for the Zune to win.

-- Steve

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I've gotta Zen V by Creative and am quite happy with it, myself.

I'm averse to ipods partly because everyone has one (am I a snob?) and partly because the white headphones tell every chav for a mile you have something worth mugging you for.

Personally this is what I was going to go for but it appears play have stopped stocking them, choosing a new range of more expensive models with less storage, *grumble*

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3476801/-/Product.html

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Zunes and iPods are pretty much identicle. Zunes are a bit more durable, iPods are a bit smaller. Price is comparable although Zune has cheaper models (with less memory).

I have a Zune, somewhat because I avoid Apple products whenever possible but mostly because I didn't need more than 4 gigabytes.

 

[shatnershaman]

Ipod is better than Zuneif you:

A)Have a Mac
B)Will buy the new one every year

Zune is better than Ipod if you:
A)Have a PC
B)Have a 360

Other MP3 players are better:
A)Always.

iPod will always dominate sales though.

 

[internutt]

iPod is this generation's Walkman. SONY ruled the portable tape/CD player market. The products were no longer tape players, they were Walkmans.

This generation the word mp3 player has been replaced by the word ipod. The ipod rules its market and will continue to do so until the next big portable device is released. The Walkman name is a joke now, a shadow of its former self, the ipod still has a few years left before such a thing happens to it.

 

[perfectimo]

My main reason to get an iPod, apart from being a wannabe hipster, is I use it as a portable harddrive.

 

[Wolvaroo]

I had a cheap little 2gb creative zen nano that I think I paid less than $50 for and lasted me years until I gave it to my brother. It even one-upped one of them expensive Ipods because it had FM radio.

But as it's been said a few times already. Ipod is synonymous for mp3 player these days. When my father saw my zen nano he asked me if it was "one of those Ipods".

 

[AuntyEthel]

I just wanted something that played music, so I bought an ipod. Thats about it. I really like it, but not in a wank-all-over-Steve-Jobs'-face way. It works. Thats what I wanted.

I hate it when people defend their ipod/zune to the death, just because they don't like the other one. They both do the same damn thing.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

I have never been the biggest fan of Ipods, they are so focused on getting smaller that they seem to lose memory and buttons like they have some kind of bizzare technilogical leprosy.

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

So what do you guys think? Personally, I never really liked the iPod anyway. It's not because of a whole "gawd apple r teh suk" thing, either. In fact, I don't think their stuff is bad, but I certainly don't prefer it. My thing with the iPod is I find their "intuitive design" to just be annoying. I really don't like the turn wheel, I don't like how you don't have much of a chance of even turning it on unless someone tells you how or you go the horrid route of randomly pushing buttons, and the interface takes too much steps to get anywhere or do anything you truly want.

I absolutely agree. I originally bought an IPOD because it offered the best storage for the dollar at my store, but the style-over-function design of the thing has just made me seriously consider ditching it for something else.

 

[darthzew]

My family worships Apple. There are two Apple laptops in the house and I've lost count of how many iPods we've been through. I hate it. I hate this reverence for all things Apple. Once a zombie, always a zombie.

I have a Zune. I really, really love it. I've had iPods and other MP3 players but none of them touch my Zune. You haven't used an MP3 player till you've used a Zune. I'm serious... it's really hard to describe just how good it is.

 

[CoziestPigeon]

Oh lord I hope the Zune beats the iPod, if for no other reason than the new iPod commercial.

"The funnest iPod ever"

Are you actually fucking kidding me!? FUNNEST IS NOT A FUCKING WORD.

 

[Virgil]

Anyone else want to bring this back from the dead and put in their 2 cents?

Well, in the year or so since I posted in this thread, things have played out pretty much as I expected. I don't think iPods - even the iPod Touch - are considered as anything special these days. The most recent releases ended up with many commentaries on how stagnant the development has been. It seems that Apple has focused most of their attention to the iPhone at this point, and the results on the iPod side of their product line kind of speak for themselves. At least they figured out they screwed the pooch with the 'fat nano' design.

On the other hand, I did end up buying an 80gb Zune. One of their artist series ones, with a very slick geometric pattern on the back. I'm still using it, and both the update that I mentioned in my previous post and the update from a month ago have been excellent upgrades. I'm unlikely to up to a 120gb though - I just don't need the space, and the software update to the 80gb keeps my older player in the same league. Overall I've been impressed with the progress - the Zune feels very much like an Xbox 360, in that it's more of a continually evolving platform than just a piece of hardware.

That said, my point still stands - it's incredibly unlikely that anything will overtake the iPod within the next few years. When it comes down to it, the basic function of an iPod, Zune, or anything similar is to play music, and they all do that well enough that any other feature would need to be phenomenal to sway the popular vote.