iPod Knockoff

Part of my allegiance to Apple and their products, the Mac, the iPod and iTunes, is due to excellence. I really believe they make higher quality machines that are designed better, inside and out. Check out all of the reasons here. Folks who use both machines often agree on this point. People who only know Windows usually disagree. The point of conversion is getting people to compare the two products side by side.

Now Microsoft has made their own version of the iPod music device called "Zune." As an iPod owner, I was curious if Microsoft had created a market-dominating, iPod-killer.

Not exactly.

Here is an article from Paul Thurrott, a Windows advocate who recently tried the new Zune. Thurrott seems to think that the Zune is a cheap iPod knockoff; he says:

I'm sorry if I'm beating this to death, but seriously, there seems to be nothing about the iPod that Microsoft is unwilling to copy. It's pathological…

Overall, the Zune is absolutely decent. It's got a nice, large screen, a simple menu system, and intuitive controls. It gets good battery life, and does provide the most basic functionality that most people expect. It is, in other words, completely average. But since you can buy a lighter, nicer-looking, and more capable iPod for exactly the same amount of money, and can find other iPod models that meet different needs at different price points, you should almost certainly avoid the first generation Zune. It just comes with too many compromises.