[mrspidersir]

who thinks that microsoft are being stupid relesing the "Zune". their is no way that it can compete with the ipod ( especially as apple have 75% of the the mp3 player market in america and creative only have 4%) this war is not against apple and microsoft it's against apple and creative.

This post has been edited by mrspidersir: 21 September 2006 - 02:43 PM

[CoffeeFiend]

It's really not quite as bad as people like to put it. It has FAR better codec support than the iPod (H.264, MP3, AAC, WMA), also, they can, and likely will add more codecs via firmware updates (perhaps ogg or flac?). It has a nice screen. It plays videos (not that I'd ever watch a video on a 3" screen). Nice 30GB HD at pretty much same price point. Wireless. Very good tag support. Good interface (fast too). Looks about a trillion times nicer than iPods IMO.

Bit will it sell more than the iPod? Definitely not. Kids these days want the "cool" mp3 player - it doesn't matter if it's good, what features it has, if it has battery issues, if it's ugly or anything - they just want the same thing as their friends.

And I have a VERY hard time believing those stats about iPods being so common. It seems to me they're (perhaps willingly) forgetting to account for billions of little flash based players sold pretty much everywhere. So far, I've only seen 4 or 5 iPods in total. If they were really 75%, you'd think I would have seens countless hundreds by now. Yet, I've seen an unbelieveable number of those "no name" flash players.

If I didn't already have a Gigabeat, I'd probably buy a Zune (otherwise perhaps an iRiver, or Creative as last resort).

[EchoNoise]

who cares?

I know I don't... and thats my 2 cents

[nfm]

They can stick their drm into my @@s.

[EchoNoise]

Wouldn't that hurt though?

[mrspidersir]

yeh drm's do suck. they spoil the whole point of downloading music

[CoffeeFiend]

nfm, on Sep 26 2006, 08:10 PM, said:

They can stick their drm into my @@s.

It's no worse than an iPod or just about every other mp3 player out there. They almost all support DRM, but none enforce it on you. It's just up to you not to buy any DRM'ed music off iTMS or whatever.

I don't buy DRM'ed contents.

[No6]

mrspidersir, on Sep 21 2006, 02:42 PM, said:

who thinks that microsoft are being stupid relesing the "Zune". their is no way that it can compete with the ipod ( especially as apple have 75% of the the mp3 player market in america and creative only have 4%) this war is not against apple and microsoft it's against apple and creative.

I remember way back in time, when Microsoft Explorer bought/licensed the rights to Mosaic browser and they released IE 1.0. People, including me, were laughing at their "feeble" attempt to compete with Netscape.

I don't know Zune's pros/cons or how it compares to the iPod, I own a cheap MP3 player. I just know that when Microsoft enters a field, they rarely fail. Is the Zune going to be the iPod killer or even a mediocre competitor? I have no clue. I do know though that were it possible to buy shares for that Microsoft division, I would trip over myself doing it.

[mrspidersir]

I think lots of people will buy the zune mainly because it' from microsoft and lots of people trust microsoft. there is no way that it will sell better than the ipod because the ipod convenient and pretty easy to use. i just dont see a need for microsoft to produce a mp3 player other than to annoy apple.

[The Apache]

i do not personally think the microsoft zune will be more successful with their product than apple and creative have.

the zune does look very nice, but microsoft have yet to state a starting price and other various things. from the looks of it, the zune will be very expensive. also, they did say something about this "3 day" permit with the WiFi capabilities between zunes - you can only own it for 3 days and then it becomes defunct; which i think is very stupid.

let's get it right: iPods suck and so will the zune.

you gotta love the creative zen microphoto. so easy and simple to use - yet with the iPod you have to install iTunes, which i hate due to the fact that it is slow (and you have to go through the process of using it to put your songs on there)

drag and drop for the win. (in windows explorer)

[CoffeeFiend]

The Apache, on Sep 30 2006, 09:41 AM, said:

the zune does look very nice, but microsoft have yet to state a starting price and other various things. from the looks of it, the zune will be very expensive.

Actually, they have. Same price than the iPod within a dollar.

The Apache, on Sep 30 2006, 09:41 AM, said:

let's get it right: iPods suck and so will the zune.

Totally agree about the iPod

mrspidersir, on Sep 29 2006, 06:50 AM, said:

the ipod convenient and pretty easy to use. i just dont see a need for microsoft to produce a mp3 player other than to annoy apple.

I have yet to see a mp3 player that's complicated to use. And if you looked at the Zune, you'll see it's no worse. As for the iPod being convenient, I strongly disagree - iTunes is VERY inconvenient IMO. MS has a "need" to diversify - and create a mp3 player - to generate revenue, on the player sales, and also a cut on the media sales. It's pretty obvious, they're in the market to make profit, like Apple and all the others.

[The Apache]

crahak, on Sep 30 2006, 06:26 PM, said:

The Apache, on Sep 30 2006, 09:41 AM, said:

the zune does look very nice, but microsoft have yet to state a starting price and other various things. from the looks of it, the zune will be very expensive.

Actually, they have. Same price than the iPod within a dollar.

really? can you link me to it please?

anyways, apple are just going to either lower their prices for their ipods they sell in stores and they will produce new ones that go above the zune. overall, apple will win - not microsoft.

crahak, on Sep 30 2006, 06:26 PM, said:

mrspidersir, on Sep 29 2006, 06:50 AM, said:

the ipod convenient and pretty easy to use. i just dont see a need for microsoft to produce a mp3 player other than to annoy apple.

I have yet to see a mp3 player that's complicated to use. And if you looked at the Zune, you'll see it's no worse. As for the iPod being convenient, I strongly disagree - iTunes is VERY inconvenient IMO. MS has a "need" to diversify - and create a mp3 player - to generate revenue, on the player sales, and also a cut on the media sales. It's pretty obvious, they're in the market to make profit, like Apple and all the others.

yeah, the itunes program itself it's bundled with useless crap i won't use and it's slow program in general. it's best to the program on apple computers anyways, it's so much faster and efficent.

as i said, mp3/mp4 programs without having a program to put your songs on is the best. drag + drop for the win. so much more simple to use as well. (I.E: Zen)

This post has been edited by The Apache: 30 September 2006 - 02:14 PM

[CoffeeFiend]

The Apache, on Sep 30 2006, 04:14 PM, said:

really? can you link me to it please?

Here. 249.99$ for the Zune, on Nov 14th.

The Apache, on Sep 30 2006, 04:14 PM, said:

anyways, apple are just going to either lower their prices for their ipods they sell in stores and they will produce new ones that go above the zune. overall, apple will win - not microsoft.

Not really. They ALREADY lowered their prices, and the Zune already matches that - and they clearly stated they wouldn't be undersold. Features wise, I'd love to see that happen - they need it badly, because they's many better players out there. I wouldn't be so sure about Apple...

[The Apache]

i still think apple will lower their prices or make a new nano with improved features on it.

[CoffeeFiend]

Again, Apple JUST lowered their prices, I highly doubt they'd do it twice in a month or such (they already dropped by 50$ IIRC). They can't afford to lose money on 'em like another well known company can.

Like No6 said, MS is well known to take over markets - not just web browsers. They've killed some competitors many times, and they've defeated countless others with similar products many times over. From OS'es (CP/M, OS/2, DR DOS, etc) to word processors (Word Perfect), to spread sheets (Lotus 1-2-3), to web browsers, etc. Novell? Stacker? Corel? Lotus? Borland? etc. Some aren't around anymore, and the others are empty shells for their former selves. They've managed to make themselves a major player in gaming consoles (a market that's very hard to get into) in a very short time. Apple's main product is something overly trivial to make. I wish them luck, they'll need it (not that I'd ever buy anything they make)

[mrspidersir]

[quote name=you gotta love the creative zen microphoto. so easy and simple to use - yet with the iPod you have to install iTunes, which i hate due to the fact that it is slow (and you have to go through the process of using it to put your songs on there)[/quote]

I two have a creative zen microphoto and it's really good. it doesnt have the style the ipod has but that dosnt matter cos it makes up for it with sound quality.

This post has been edited by mrspidersir: 02 October 2006 - 03:47 AM

[The Apache]

yeah, the sound quality on there is fantastic!

i like the way the menu is configured and such - and really good reception with the aerial.

[bonestonne]

my older sister has a zen microphoto, and i actually like it. hers is an 8 gig, which wouldn't really hold all my music [i'd need 20+ gigs] but i like it a lot more than iPods...for a number of reasons really..apple wanted to copywrite the word Pod, which didnt go so well, itunes [in general, i hate it] and lastly, the whole new interface. iPods might have games, alarms, stopwatches etc, but they really don't have the battery life, especially the video. 5 minutes of video almost cuts your battery life in half..plus, its an mp3 player, not youtube. i reserve mp3 players to music. maybe files for transfers at school/work, but primarily music. i have a tiny little 256mb mp3 player/flash drive that has about 40 songs on it, totalling 3 hours if i push it. i might remind you that i have over 2400 songs, all of them are legal, most of them are off CDs, some off itunes although $1 per song really doesn't go so hot with me, so i don't do it unless i absolutely have to. but even still, i don't use itunes as a player, i used it to get songs for my schools radio station [im the music director] and it was basically 14 bucks to the expense of almost everyone but me because i didn't really like most of the songs, but it shut people up.

the radio station even tried itunes for a day, and it totally went haywire. we're running 866MHz processors and special sound cards that have 1/4" output L/R for mixing. as good as it went, it didn't go so hot. itunes had issues with our sound card, the music sounded terrible, and the computer crashed over a dozen times, i didn't really keep track as to how many, but over ten. i'd rather use WMP. but i like winamp best, so thats what i do use

my suggestion is to do what i do, and use ipods as 'external drives' and just have the computer recognize it as a USB device, drag and drop music, and forget the software. it works better that way

[prx984]

i know this is kind of an old post, but it was in the new posts thingy lol

anyhoo, i use rockbox on my iPod. it not only sounds better, but i don't have to use itunes

plus, with rockbox, theres a lot of features which the iPod software should bloody well have. like 1, gapless playback and 2, a graphical EQ. how can you make a 300 dollar mp3 player that doesn't have a graphical EQ? my 50 dollar creative zen nano plus has one.

the iPod sounds a lot better now that i use rockbox on it, the bass is there and the highend hasnt been cut out. so its all good.

i'd buy an iPod video if i could get it in about 8 gb or so, maybe 10. friggin 30 and 80 gb is way too much for me. i have 6gb of music, so i don't need 30 gb, i don't understand how someone could have 80gb of music unless they actually had theyre own radio station.

i don't like the look of the Zune. its kinda plain/ugly imo. the iPod isnt much better, but i like the look of my nano a lot (its 9 months old and its mint condition ^_^)

i have since gone back to the original iPod software because there are some features i like, ie) better battery life and it can shut off properly now. other than that, i liked rockbox a lot better. the gapless playback and the EQ were my favourite 2 features. (if only an apple programmer would see this post)

anyway, im out.