Microsoft has released its maiden digital music player, Zune, today all over the US. It is the latest in Microsoft's efforts to counter rival computer company Apple. But experts feel that Zune will not give Apple's iPod any competition at least for a few years.
Zune is available in 3 colors, black, brown and white, although there is only one version which costs $249.99. Apple, on the other hand offers a range of iPods starting from 1GB model costing $79 to the 80 GB model costing $349.
When comparing a Zune and an iPod of the same capacity the Zune looks bulkier and cheap as compared to the elegance of an iPod. Zune also has a round object in the middle of it like the iPod but in this case it is not a scroll wheel but four switches to increase and decrease volume, or to select and to go forward and backward. The cost of purchasing songs from Zune's online store is the same as iPod that is 99 cents. But the biggest drawback of Zune is that it will not play music downloaded from other digital stores like Napster, Rhapsody and of course iTunes.
The Zune software is exclusively used to transfer music on to the player. This software has been designed to be very simple and amazingly user friendly and hence will sync the user's music collection on his PC and Zune perfectly. The Zune also has a built in FM tuner which can scan for stations and also set up your favorite stations as pre sets.
However the most advertised feature of the Zune is its inbuilt WiFi ability. So users could send songs to other Zune users who are in the same room (range of 30 feet) and they could hear it three times over three days before it gets deleted. The WiFi ability has a lot of potential but for now it is limited to just the above feature.
Microsoft is realistic about Zune not doing much harm to iPod's territory but consider this as an important first step. Currently iPod has 75 per cent of the digital player and legal download market. Also Microsoft's foray into the entertainment business is due to the extension of technology into this field and the PC has ceased to be everything in technology.
