What in the World is a Zune?

The Zune is a portable media player device made by Microsoft which directly rivals the top selling portable media device from Apple, the iPod.

The History of Zune30 and its Revolutionary Value.

The Zune was first introduced to American Consumers in late 2006 with its first model the Zune30. The Zune30 was a 30gb media device, that came in three colors, brown, white, and black. Unique for its time, it was equipped with something the iPod did not have, an F.M. radio. It also had another unique feature that allowed users to share songs and photos through Wi-Fi connectivity, but this feature sorely lagged for consumers due to its limits and restrictions on most music related content. Even though the Zune’s revolutionary charm was in full bloom for portable media devices, it still did not compare to Apple’s already leading giant of the personal entertainment world, the iPod, which offered users simplicity and familiarity over complexity.

What Microsoft Tried Next?

The Zune did not just allow its competition to win without a fight. Microsoft was determined to push the Zune to its limits in order to compete in sales with the ipod. The next installment (or second generation) of the Zune was better designed and had more features, but was still not successful in sales compared to the ipod. In 2007 Zune introduced a new 80GB model and slim models Zune 4 and Zune 8 to rival the iPod’s Nano series. The new Zunes had all the revolutionary trademarks as before, Wi-Fi, wireless sync, and F.M. radio. They also had something new, a touch wheel that made the device feel more like the iPod. Even with these new features, the Zune, since its debut, had barely sold a million devices. It was miles away from Apple’s ipod, who from 2006-2007 sold over 30 times the amount of units. On May 6, 2008, Microsoft announced that it sold just over 2 million Zunes total; about a million of those being sold from 2007-2008 with the launch of its second generation devices. This little bit of success did not continue with the launch of its promising Zune HD in 2009, but instead just seemed like another failed attempt in Microsoft’s long rivalry with Apple for control of the portable media world.

Zune HD

The Zune HD is the latest portable media device from Zune. Microsoft released the 16GB and 32GB portable devices in September 2009, and has since added a 64GB device in April 2010 to help boost sales. The device includes a touch screen interface, Wi-Fi for synchronization and access to the Zune Network, and also has web browsing capabilities. Zune Hd’s come with a 3.3-inch glass capacitive multi-touch OLED display with a 16:9 480×272 resolution for great viewing experiences. They also come with the windows operating system Windows CE for optimal web browsing capabilities and is equipped with Bing as its search engine but can also function with Google and Yahoo. The Zune HD is considerably small in size, about 2.07×4.08×0.35 in, and is even quite light in weight at 2.6oz. The Zune HD, like prior versions of the Zune, has its eye set on radio, and offers both FM and HD listening for its fans. The absolute best thing about Zune Hd is perhaps the High Definition viewing, as it allows users to watch and enjoy their favorite shows or movies in HD.

Like its competition, the iPod touch, users can also expect to see apps, apps, and more apps. However, unlike its competition, the ipod touch, the Zune only has a handful of apps to choose from. All the original apps are present with the Zune HD, like facebook and twitter, but it sorely lacks the uniqueness of app capability that the ipod touch has. Zune HD has several games available and makes an excellent small gaming device too. It’s also rumored that integration with the X-box 360 has begun to develop. Overall the Zune HD is a nice buy, and can have many benefits for the open minded user who is not against trying new things. The Zune also comes at an affordable price. At just over two hundred dollars for the 64GB model, and under two hundred for other smaller capacity models, this is certainly worth it compared to its competition, the 32GB iPod touch, which costs more money and has half the memory than the 64GB Zune HD.

Still Competition?

With the many attempts that Microsoft has made at making an elite portable media device that can actually rival with Apple’s iPod, it is quite certain that they will keep trying, and that consumers can probably expect to see more Zunes in the future. The Zune is not a bad concept, nor is it a completely bad system. It just has very difficult competition.