10 Reasons why I’m buying a 2nd Generation Zune over any Apple iPod

11 Oct, 2007  Personal

By StrangeWork.com: After a lot of research and a lot of debating I’ve decided to purchase a 2nd Generation Zune instead of any Apple iPod currently on the market. Here is a list of the top 10 reasons why I made this decision.

2nd Generation Zune Family of Products

10. Display – The Zune display is 3.2 inches, which is slightly smaller than the iPod Touch 3.5 inch display, but much larger than the iPod Classics 2.5 inch display.

9. Video Out – The new Zune will have a video out resolution of 720×576 maximum. This is for TV output and easily beats the original Zune’s 320×240 output.

8. Wi-Fi – The Zune features 802.11b/g wireless networking allowing the ability to download music and sync quickly and easily from any Wi-Fi network.

7. Wireless Sharing – will let users share full-length songs, albums, playlists, pictures and even audio podcasts from one Zune to another. Shared songs can be played up to three times with no time restrictions, Microsoft said, and shared songs can also be pass along to other Zune users.

6. FM Tuner – The new Zunes will feature an internal FM Tuner allowing you to listen to local radio stations directly through the Zune. This is a feature that has been lacking on iPods since the beginning. Of course Apple will be happy to sell you an FM Tuner for a small fee of $49.99.

5. Landscape Mode – A feature missing from the classic iPod, Landscape Mode allows you to view videos and images in a nice widescreen format.

4. Zune Social – A new Zune social network will allow members to share their playlists and samples of the songs on their Zunes. Any Zune user will be able to can create a free, customizable Zune Card that automatically updates to reflect the music they are listening to on their Zune or with Zune software on their computer.

3. Zune Marketplace – One major reason the iPod has been so successful is because of iTunes. Until now there hasn’t been a great competitor software package available. The Zune Marketplace is changing that notion. The Zune Marketplace update will offer podcasts and the Music Store will offer one million DRM-free songs.

2. Wireless Sync – The Zune, both 1st and 2nd generation devices, will have the ability to wirelessly sync your music library from your PC using a Wi-Fi network. Imagine a world with no cords!

1. It’s not Apple – Apple has let their success in the past few years go to their head. The iPhone is a great example of Apple’s proprietary vision of what all their devices should be.

Zune Logo

I know this post will generate some controversy so let me go ahead and defend some of the comments I expect to receive:

To anyone that mentions the iPod Touch – Apple’s iPod Touch costs $50 more and has an 8GB hard drive, compared to the 80GB hard drive in the new 2nd generation Zunes. Do you want to store 20,000 songs or 2,000 songs? Next!

To anyone that mentions Microsoft – Yes Microsoft is big, we all know this. Most people are scared of big companies, we know this as well. Why don’t I care? Microsoft has done an amazing job at integrating all of their devices together. My Vista Media Center PC can talk to my Xbox 360 who can then talk to my Zune who can then talk to my Vista PC. My media is instantly shared throughout all of my devices. Make my life easier and I will love you forever!

To anyone that mentions slow Zune sales – According to Wikipedia, Apple sold 376,000 iPods in their first year of production. Microsoft sold 1 million Zunes in their first year of production. Now I understand comparing iPod sales from 2002 to Zune sales from 2007 isn’t apples to apples (pun intended), but it’s a good gauge as to where Microsoft stands. Nobody, including Microsoft, expected to sell 50 million units in one year.

Conclusion – Overall the 2nd Generation Zunes are a pretty amazing mp3 player. Microsoft listened to what people wanted in an mp3 player and incorporated those features in the new Zune.

That is why I will be at the store on November 13th to purchase my brand new Zune!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Related posts:

  1. No Zune for You, Microsoft drops the ball!
  2. How To: Download Podcasts with iTunes and Sync with a Zune
  3. Zune Originals: Microsofts big secret for ZDay
  4. Easily Increase Site Traffic Using StumbleUpon.com
  5. Eat Me! I’m a Turkey!

Tags: , , , ,

35 Comments so far »

  1. JeffNo Gravatar said

    am October 11 2007 @ 3:14 pm

    Go Zune!!!

  2. Andy PastuszakNo Gravatar said

    am October 12 2007 @ 2:59 pm

    Well, you talk about how great the Zune is GOING TO BE. The thing is not even out yet. So, let me ask you some questions that other might want to know:

    1. Does the Zune have a true line out for use in your car, or do you have to use the headphone jack?

    2. Does it support bookmarking files, so you can listen to audiobooks?

    3. Does it offer speedup of audiobooks with pitch correction?

    4. Will it display lyrics if they’re embedded in the ID3 of the file.

    5. Does it ignore “The” in artists names while sorting?

    6. Does it work as a portable drive now, mounting as a drive letter in Windows?

    A lot of these are features the iPod has, the others don’t for some reason.

  3. New Zune vs. New iPod « Kyle’s Blog said

    am October 13 2007 @ 4:06 pm

    [...] Link [...]

  4. NickNo Gravatar said

    am October 13 2007 @ 7:43 pm

    While i agree with everything you say here, i still got an ipod touch. Why? Not because i’m an apple fanboy. In fact, this is my first ipod, and was even a microsoft intern last summer. Instead, it’s because it has the internet browser. Had Microsoft incorporated that into this generation of zunes (which i can’t imagine is too difficult, considering it already has the wifi) i would have gone with a zune all the way. But i LOVE being able to use wifi to browse the internet (works great for boring classes at school), which is why i’ll stick with the Ipod :)

  5. Andy PastuszakNo Gravatar said

    am October 14 2007 @ 9:55 am

    Let try this again. I am not a fan of being censored. This is the USA after all.

    Before you go rushing out for that Zune, you should find out of the nicer minor features of the iPod are available in the new Zune.

    1. Does it support album artwork embedded in the ID3 tag. I look at the lyrics for songs all the time.

    2. Does it support bookmarking of files, so it remembers playback position? This is important for both audiobooks and podcasts. Booksmarks should also survive a track change, reboot and sync.

    3. Does it support audiobook accelerated play with pitch correction? This one is invaluable to me.

    4. When showing an artist list does it ignore “The” in the artist name when sorting alphabetically, so 30% of your list isn’t all lumped together?

    5. Does it have a true line out for hooking up to your car or home stereo, so you get the best possible sound output and no need to adjust the volume on the Zune, only on the car stereo?

    The Zune looks awesome. The screen is real nice. I used an iPod. I’m not fanatical about it. But I have not found a player that has all the features listed above. As soon as someone makes one, I’ll look at it.

    I’ve tried to contact someone at Microsoft to see if these features were available, but I have not gotten a reply. My brother works for Microsoft and even HE can’t get an answer.

  6. kEVINNo Gravatar said

    am October 25 2007 @ 11:22 am

    Well Zune SUCKS, Microsoft blows, and VISTA is the biggest peace of garbage i know

  7. DuncanNo Gravatar said

    am October 25 2007 @ 3:48 pm

    “According to Wikipedia, Apple sold 376,000 iPods in their first year of production. Microsoft sold 1 million Zunes in their first year of production.”

    This isn’t exactly the fairest comparison, as in 2001/2002 the MP3 player market was just really starting to become something big, which in 2007 the market is now well established and highly successful.

    Although, having said that, I do like the Zune. It looks really nice and I would most likely buy it except for 2 problems.
    1.I’m in the UK, as far as I’m aware they aren’t on sale here
    And 2. I use a Mac as my primary computer, which I am to believe isn’t compatible with the Zune at the moment.

    Otherwise, I’d be enjoying a Zune right about now.

  8. GerhardNo Gravatar said

    am October 25 2007 @ 8:08 pm

    Well, I personally don’t own either the iPod OR the Zune, so I can’t vouch for either (though I have used them)… BUT, I do have a Zen Vision: M 30gb, and I have to say, I much prefer it. Creative made a player that supports almost all the standard formats, and made a video screen that really is up to par. It seems people are always fighting for either the Zune or iPod anymore, but not many people even know the Zen exists.

  9. CliffordNo Gravatar said

    am October 25 2007 @ 8:26 pm

    If the zune supported more audio formats like OGG and FLAC then I would certainly consider it. But then again I’m kind of freaky that way. But another thing I look at when I am looking at an MP3 player I’m not so worried about extra features as I am about the audio quality that I can get from it. It’s supposed to play music, thats what it is intended for. I’ve never listened to a zune so I can’t say anything about it either way. But I have sure heard some crappy sounding MP3 players. Same songs and same earphones, just nastier sound.

    Well, good luck with your new Zune when you get it.

  10. PenguinNo Gravatar said

    am October 26 2007 @ 12:11 am

    I’m glad to see someone else likes the zune. If I didn’t already have their earlier model, I would jump at the new ones coming out. Personally, the zune does everything I need it to do… play music (and listen to the radio).

    Of course both the iPod and Zune are excellent devices in their own way. The main advantage the Zune has is, as you said, it’s made by Microsoft so it can automatically interact with my Computer and Xbox 360 to swap around music and other things (the built in

    Anyways, I would rate my 1st gen Zune as a 9.5/10 and I expect the new ones to be much better.

  11. stevenNo Gravatar said

    am October 26 2007 @ 12:45 am

    ok my reson i will not buy any other player besieds the new ipod classic is becouse it holds 160gb of media now u might say why would someone need that much ok this is why i need i have 120gb of anime and 2gb of music 30gb of podcast so yes i need it if anything i need more

  12. BransbyNo Gravatar said

    am October 26 2007 @ 5:24 am

    Is it just me or do most of the reasons for chosing a new Zune over the iPod come down to it either being better than the old zune, or better than the old iPod? You’ve listed very few comparisons between the new Zune (not available yet as I understand) and the iPod touch, which is available. Not that I’m a fan of either, you just don’t appear to be comparing like to like.

    Also, Microsoft will let you listen to shared songs up to 3 times? This is a selling point? Thanks, but no thanks Mircosoft, if I’ve paid for something, I’ll decide what I’m going to do with it.

  13. ftrNo Gravatar said

    am October 26 2007 @ 6:38 am

    Andy Pastuszak makes some good comments, unfortnately all he proves is that not one mp3 player is better over the other, rather it’s what you want from them. From this article I’d go for the Zune. On Andy’s (revised) points:

    1. I don’t particularly care about being able to read the lyrics for a song, in fact I’ve yet to come across anyone who embeds the lyrics in the id3 tags. I certainly don’t do it. Also, viewing the album art is unneccessary for me, most of the time I don’t have the album art, just the tracks.

    2. That is admittedly an important feature, and I can’t argue with it. However I will say that I’m not one of the people who listen to audiobooks on my player, I find them very hard to concentrate on and prefer to read the actual book, but thats just me. I’m also not bothered if my tracks start up where they left next time I turn on my player or not. My C Zen does that, and I usually skip back to the start anyway.

    3. For reasons listed in point 2, this doesn’t apply to me, but I can see how people would find this important.

    4. Is it just me, or am I the only person who knows “the” bands as “the” bands? Admittedly I’m not a fan of many bands that use the word “The” as the start of their name, but bands like “The White Stripes” “The Beatles” “The Who” “The Rolling Stones” etc I KNOW as “The White Stripes” etc… I would probably get quite annoyed having to look in R or W for these bands, as it’s not their name.

    5. I don’t drive, admittedly, and there’s only one other device I know of to plug an iPod into a stero: the radio-thingy… broadcasts your mp3 player in a tiny radius on a certain frequency. The quality of THAT, I have found in my friend’s car, is, well…shite. I don’t mind using the headphone jack.

    So there you go. Not meant to be flaming, if that’s how it’s percieved, just thought Andy might finally like some feedback on his comments and points.

  14. Easily Increase Site Traffic Using StumbleUpon.com - Brad Williams Weblog: Web 2.0 and Beyond said

    am October 26 2007 @ 7:54 am

    [...] amazing part is it actually works! On Wednesday my post 10 Reasons why I’m buying a 2nd Generation Zune over any Apple iPod hit StumbleUpon. Since then I have received over 2,000 unique hits to that post from StumbleUpon [...]

  15. mwellsNo Gravatar said

    am November 11 2007 @ 9:33 pm

    Bransby: It’s hard to compare the iPod touch to the Zune, considering they’re both very different media players. People looking for a high capacity player will favor a Zune over an iPod touch, but will definitely look into the iPod classic as well, since it offers similar(and in the case of the 160gb model, superior) capacity.

    Hence, the comparisons.

    Andy: I can’t answer most of those questions, but as a 1st gen owner, I can say that “The” bands are definitely organized without “The” taken into the equation. Oh, and yes, it does support album artwork embedded into the id3 tag.

  16. The laughing DJNo Gravatar said

    am November 11 2007 @ 9:34 pm

    I’m sorry but some of these comments just rekindle the feelings I had when it was SNES vs Genesis. In short they make me laugh. Any old schoolers here remember the comments then. The BS the fan boys would spill about their systems. If you were ignorant enough to believe some of the “good” speakers, you could walk off thinking just about anything. Same thing happened with N64 and Playstation, and now 360 vs PS3. It makes me chuckle that the same thing is happening here. iPod vs Zune. Wow this is funny. Fidelity wise the Zune 30 beat the iPod, here is a link

    http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9721303-1.html

    That is more than enough to satisfy me. Then it has its features. Much more than the iPod Classic offers. Sorry but its true. Then the comments about iPhone/ iTouch start pouring in. IMO the iPhone/ iTouch are not MP3 players. They are PDAs. I have a PDA, works great, has 16gb storage and only cost me $280. It can do the same and more than the iPhone. Why do I want an iPhone/ iTouch? I don’t need one, so I don’t want one. Now if there was a “0″ attached to the “8″ then yeah I would have chosen it over the Zune 80. I DJ so even 500 gigs is not enough space for me. Plus I only listen to songs at 320kb/s, and yes I can tell the difference. 8-16gb just doesn’t cut it. Even the Classic 160gb doesn’t cut it.

  17. kenshinakhNo Gravatar said

    am November 11 2007 @ 10:02 pm

    UH…. Apple fanboys…. stop spreading crap and lies. People have good reasons for getting a Zune or else they wouldn’t even support the device. OBVIOUSLY, something in the Zune appeals to people more than an iPod. In addition, Zune is somehow selling decently even though they do not advertise well. What does this mean? It means that the people who bother to research before buying find the Zune better featured than the iPods.

  18. Andy PasuszakNo Gravatar said

    am November 11 2007 @ 11:28 pm

    Ok, I thought I would chime in. Though I prefer the iPod for it’s superior audiobook support, there is one things about both players (the iPod and Zune) that bugs the cr*p out of me.

    You have to sync it! After some 6 years of syncing with iTunes, I really, really want to be able to just drag and drop my music onto the thing and have the songs just show up on the iPod. This way I can add songs to the thing ANYWHERE. The Zune is using the syncing model, because iTunes and syncing has made the iPod successful and Microsoft is trying to “embrace and extend” that model, because that is what they do.

    In my book, the Sansa really wins, because you can drag files onto it and when you eject it, it reads the ID3 tags of the new files and adds it to the database. It’s a shame the Sansa has such poor audiobook support, something essential to me.

    The Cowon players also have drag and drop support, BUT, they don’t sort anything by ID3 tags, everything is done by filenames and folders. I have a Cowon A2 also, and though I like it for watching video, playing anything other than a simple folder of music is really quite annoying.

    For me personally, there is no perfect MP3 player. The iPod has the best set of features for me, but I do find some things lacking on it.

    Andy

  19. MichaelNo Gravatar said

    am November 11 2007 @ 11:31 pm

    To Andy:

    1. Does the Zune have a true line out for use in your car, or do you have to use the headphone jack?
    It has a true line. Go to zune.net >> accessories to find out. It does not connect through the jack.

    2. Does it support bookmarking files, so you can listen to audiobooks?
    Yes if listed as a podcast.

    3. Does it offer speedup of audiobooks with pitch correction?
    I do not know.

    4. Will it display lyrics if they’re embedded in the ID3 of the file?
    No. Although, I don’t know anyone that does this. I know all the lyrics by heart that are on my player.

    5. Does it ignore “The” in artists names while sorting?
    Yes: what PMP doesn’t?

    6. Does it work as a portable drive now, mounting as a drive letter in Windows?
    With a hack.

  20. jdeoNo Gravatar said

    am November 12 2007 @ 3:46 am

    As an ipod owner, I think the new zunes are extremely nice looking, and a very solid dmp in its own right. Loving the new zune pad, the beautiful screen, the overall design, and wireless features. In many ways it’s better than the ipod but the zune marketplace still has to catch up to itunes, mostly in terms of offering videos. I’m also a little let down by the fact that there is no gapless playback nor is there a clock. The minor features are no issue to me, but having a solid music store is the biggest factor. Right now, itunes still dominates as the best music store at the moment, mainly because it has the most content (although it’s not *perfect*). I don’t see that changing really soon. Right now I’d be sold on the zune 80 if the new software works smoothly. Kudos to the Zune team for at least making an effort to upgrade their product. Apple keeps churning up “new” devices (such as the ipod classic, which i own) that offers nothing but a slightly different UI and more capacity. And unfortunately for older ipod owners you can’t upgrade the UI. I’m content with seeing the competition in the dmp department.

    One last thing, a tiny gripe, it’d be wonderful if the zune 4/8 had a slightly bigger screen. What is all that black space around the perimeter for anyway?

  21. The laughing DJNo Gravatar said

    am November 12 2007 @ 3:55 am

    to Kenshinakh

    AMEN

  22. No Zune for You, Microsoft drops the ball! - Brad Williams Weblog: Web 2.0 and Beyond said

    am November 14 2007 @ 4:31 pm

    [...] I’m sitting here writing this post without a Zune in my hand. If you read my previous post 10 Reasons why I’m buying a 2nd Generation Zune over any Apple iPod then you know how much I was looking forward to the launch of the new [...]

  23. travisNo Gravatar said

    am November 19 2007 @ 12:49 am

    I would love a zune but unfortunatly I have a MacbookPro and ZUNE is not compatiable. I know of other apple/ipod users that would also get zunes if it supported mac. sad to see that it doesn’t.

  24. KazelzshNo Gravatar said

    am May 30 2008 @ 1:17 am

    Hi webmaster!

  25. stevenNo Gravatar said

    am May 30 2008 @ 1:22 am

    yes ok so they have lot of things over the ipod but not what i use first of all there wireless is useless 2nd you mention the 80gb i could easily fill that up i would need the ipod 160gb ( now beat that ) and i will still almost fill that up i have more then 150gb of videos for ipod

    3rd and most importend of them all

    NO MAC COMPATIBILITY why should apple make ipods work on windows but Microsoft make the zune not work on mac ? whats up with that picture MS is just a bad sport trying to make a fast buck

  26. KazelhsqNo Gravatar said

    am May 30 2008 @ 1:30 am

    Hi webmaster!

  27. The Laughing DJNo Gravatar said

    am June 18 2008 @ 4:12 pm

    To: Steven

    Maybe you should research a product before you spout off at the mouth. I can tell that you have very limited knowledge of the Zune.

    1. Wireless is far from useless. I use the wireless everyday. If I’m not syncing my Zune then I’m sending podcast, both audio and video, to my friends, sample music that I mix, pictures, and my new favorite wireless feature, multi player gaming.

    2. I’m just ecstatic that you have 150GB of video on your ipod. I have every single episode of Mythbusters on my Zune till February 08 (115 episodes) on my Zune and still manage to have 7,000 320KB/s songs on it, with 5.6GB left.

    3. It has no mac compatibility because the software is still in a Beta phase. It’s not because MS wants to make a “quick buck.” If you actually took the time to research something you would know that the Zune is made by Zune which is a separate company “now” funded by MS. They used to be an independent company before MS bought them. Just like with Bungie Studios.

  28. The Laughing DJNo Gravatar said

    am June 18 2008 @ 4:14 pm

    ***note to apple fanboys that must have audiobook***

    Zune will soon be supporting audiobook format

  29. KazeldxhNo Gravatar said

    am July 3 2008 @ 5:08 am

    Hi webmaster!

  30. KazeldonNo Gravatar said

    am July 3 2008 @ 10:20 am

    Hi webmaster!

  31. Andy PasuszakNo Gravatar said

    am July 3 2008 @ 3:04 pm

    How exactly is Zune adding Audiobook support in the future going to help me now??

    I have a Cowon A2 also, and it support bookmarking, but doesn’t do as good a job as the iPod does, so I use the iPod for music and audiobooks and the Cowon for movies and TV shows.

    Please don’t tell me what the Zune is going to get. MS has built a career around promising features and then scaling back. I’ll believe it when I see it.

    Oh, and I need the Zune to work on a Mac and Linux.

    Andy

  32. DennisNo Gravatar said

    am July 25 2008 @ 5:05 am

    I happen to own both – an 80GB iPod and an 80GB Zune. THERE IS NO COMPETITION! The Zune wins – period. I’ve actually had TWO, yes TWO iPods and both were disasters. After an amazing 10 minutes of play, the screen would freeze for 2-3 minutes…and then lose the sound. Some podcasts would never appear on the iPod for whatever reason. I’d have to get up an hour in advance just to make sure that the podcasts would actually download from iTunes. My experience – two iPods were pieces of junk and I don’t care if Apple’s ticked. So far, no trouble with Zune and if anyone wants to buy a piece of crap 80GB iPod, I’ll give you a good deal.

  33. bobbyNo Gravatar said

    am August 28 2008 @ 1:53 pm

    I would never get a Zune.

    Why?

    Because Zunes are for NERDS.

  34. JONATHAN THE TECHNOLOGY FREAKNo Gravatar said

    am November 8 2008 @ 1:55 pm

    apple sucks because they make everything so hard and so expensive.nerds are the people that listen to audio books.and why is everybody using windows to put music on their ipods? go buy a apple computer and use that to put music on your stupid ipods!

  35. michaelNo Gravatar said

    am August 28 2009 @ 11:27 pm

    lol zunes suck compared to the itouch :) itouch rocks im saving to buy one within the next few weeks!

Comment RSS · TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Name: (Required)

eMail: (Required)

Website:

Comment: