Geoff Duncan

Today, more than five years after Apple introduced its first iPod, Microsoft launched its own portable media player, the Zune. Microsoft sees the Zune as the first in a a line of digital media devices which will variously exist in people's lives alongside smartphones, personal computers, video gaming consoles, and other lifestyle gizmos.

Microsoft's Zune
media player

I wrote a piece for this week's issue of TidBITS, "Of the Zune, DRM, and Universal Music," covering some of the technological concepts and implications behind the Zune, as well as the business realities of launching a new vertically-integrated media player/music store in the iPod era.

I don't own an iPod, and can't say I have any interest in acquiring a Zune. (I can't imagine what I would do with either one.) But I think Microsoft's Zune may be a fascinating product line to watch. The technology industry greeted Microsoft's announcement of the Zune as a clarion call: the Redmond giant had finally seen fit to developer a so-called "iPod-killer!" But reception to the first Zune device—which is somewhat bulky compared to an iPod, only works on Windows, and offers novel-but-weak wireless and media sharing capabilities—has been distinctly muted.

Microsoft-watchers point out the Zune is a version one product: it usually takes Microsoft two or three revisions to get a product right. And Microsoft will get that opportunity, having the resources, money, and brain-power to stay in the media player game as long as it wants. Despite the first Zune unit's shortcomings, the product line may eventually become a credible competitor to Apple's iPod—although one can be sure Apple isn't going to sit still and wait for Microsoft to catch up.