Premature Zune Praise

21 Sep 2006

I find it astounding that much of the tech blogosphere is giving Microsoft praise and adulation based on an announced product. I agree with John Gruber in that until the Zune ships, it is vaporware. Now, Microsoft has not released all of the details regarding the Zune such as battery life and price. Gruber points out something surprising regarding the much hyped “social networking” feature hasn’t been completely thought out just yet:

Gizmodo: OK, if I’m using a Zune, am I really going to troll Wifi for other people’s music? What is that going to do for battery life?

J Allard: It’s a tough problem, and we’re not done with it yet. What we have is different power modes. Oversimplifying, we have a beacon mode that says “I’m around.” The next level that uses more power says “hey, I want to do something, and share, whether that’s music, photos.”

They’re not done with it yet. So why announce a feature that you’re not done with yet? Who knows. Anyway, back to my point. The Zune is already being touted as “great first step” towards competing with the iPod. While I’m not disagreeing with the possibility of the Zune’s greatness, let’s not forget it hasn’t shipped. It’s also not done. I believe this may point to a hidden burning desire for someone to take down Apple as the DAP leader. Apple is making improvements to their line to prepare for the holidays and (some) people are complaining they didn’t release a true video iPod. They pre-announce a living room appliance for streaming media and (some) people immediately begin to tear it down as to what it can’t do. Meanwhile, the Zune is in the same vapor state as the iTV, yet it’s the best thing since sliced bread with unproven features. According to Microsoft, the Zune is not just a re-branded Toshiba Gigabeat, so we really can’t say this technology actually works. Heck, even Ellen Degeneres is giving away Zunes to a bunch of women on her show. I hope for their sake, those players aren’t prototypes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m hoping the Zune delivers and gives Apple some good competition. We’ve already seen a significant price drop on the 30GB iPod which may affect the Zune’s final price (rumored to be $229 now!). However, I refuse to say that the Zune is one that may challenge Apple until the thing is out in the wild, reviewed, tried and tested. Even then, it’ll be hard to tell.