The helpful comments I received on my Nikon D50 vs Canon 350d post, helped me chose my camera, the Canon 350d. The comments I received on my Nokia N70 vs Sony Ericsson W800i post helped me chose my W800i cellphone. Now the time has come for to pick a music player.
All I want for Christmas is a ….
A few months ago the decision as to what portable Music player I should get would probably have been pretty straight forward. I would have followed the masses of sheep and purchased an Apple iPod. Then a curve ball was thrown and the Microsoft Zune entered the market. The battle has begun…
Is the Microsoft Zune a wannabe Apple iPod? Or is the Microsoft Zune the iPod killer?
There is lots of debate on this topic. Both players cost the same price, they both store 30gb, they weigh roughly the same, they look roughly the same, and they are about the same size. More specifically though, the battery life of the iPod is about 2 hours longer, and the Zune screen is slightly bigger. Hmmm… none of that helps me really in my decision making.
The Zune allows wireless song and picture sharing with other Zune Players, and it has an in-built radio. Now that helps! Wireless song and picture sharing could certainly come in handy, and I won’t have to fork out more money for an iPod radio extension piece.
What one must not forget about is the software debate between these Music Players. iTunes vs. Zune Software.
It doesn’t look like you can use the iTunes software with the Microsoft Zune? That would be quite a nice feature, and probably persuade a lot more ipod users to switch.
The Zune software can import all your purchased iTunes tracks though, all your playlists (except for the smart playlists), as well as all the ratings you have given each individual songs. This would help in the migration. The iTunes store does look a lot more slick though, more like a multimedia centre than the Zune’s web application look.
iTunes has about 3.5 million songs avaliable online, and sells videos, the Zune has around 2 million songs avaliable and does not currently sell videos. The Zune software is also supposed to be quite unstable with certain versions of Windows. Looks like Zune have to play catch up here.
A pro for Zune, and its software, is that its music playback is supposed to top the ipod’s. Its default equaliser settings supposedly sound fuller. Source: Gizmodo again.
Should the Zune play catch up before it is considered a viable alternative to the iPod? Or has it done enough to impress you?
I really want to hear your comments on this battle of portable music players. Who has got what? Are you happy with your iPod? What kind of iPod do you have? Help the millions like me to decide what to buy for Christmas.
At the moment, to be honest, I am siding with Apple and its iPod Nano. Should Microsoft rather have aimed at competing with this cheaper, smaller, more popular alternative?
I'm a half English, half South African, digital designer, photography lover & co-founder of WooThemes.com. This site is my dedicated creative outlet.
Now I am speaking dead honestly here. I have had an iPod for one year then I decided to try something new… zune. Right away I liked the zune better: bigger screen, ability to share music with others, way cheaper, radio, better sound quality, and a much easier library to work with rather than iTunes
Bonz,
Wait… MEMORY STICK? HOW UGLY CAN THAT LOOK STICKING OUT OF YOUR PHONE? I would rather have a BUILT IN 32gb FLASH DRIVE.
Anyways, iPod (Touch) wins.
I don’t know much about the zune apart from the recent mass crash of them and it’s drm, but that was enough to convince me not to go any closer….
The ipod I have works on both my windows and Linux machines perfectly…. I doubt the zune would play as nice
See, the whole thing that keeps the iPod alive is… peer pressure. I mean, some of you know it. You bought an iPod because most of the people you know has one. I’m not saying the iPod isn’t good, in fact, it rocks. Just think about why are you buying this product. you should buy a music player just because someone you know has one, you should be looking at the functionality of the product, the sound quality, and its complatibility. I personally own a Zune, a black one with 16gigs of storage, and i think it is amazing. you can do quite a few thing you can do on it that you cant do on any other player.
I prefer iPod touch, it has 8GB/16GB/32GB and who knows. maybe they’re adding more on the next upgrades. i have an iPod classic 120GB with that, i can put 100,000+songs. -im not saying Zune is bad. but compared to iPod, not that good-. now iPod comes in touch screen. what else u want? all the apps, internet, facebook, email and 25,000+apps(and counting).
– i say iPod is better in many ways. = )
Apple is still far ahead of Microsoft in relation to
mobile devices, Steve Ballmer will have to run a lot for arrive to
Steve Jobs