Zune HD Yields Tears of Joy – Will it matter?
CNET Published a highly positive review of the upcoming Zune HD device from Microsoft yesterday. We, at SkratchBoard.com, has also had a couple of minutes of hands-on with the device, and we came away heartbroken.
Why?
Because the device is so slim, so sexy, and so awesome. The user interface is intuitive, appealing and responsive. The web browser is snappy and very usable. The OLED display is absolutely stunning. But it breaks our hear that it’s not a phone. We really wish that Microsoft would just put a radio and make the device a phone a world where standalone digital music player sales are declining and where users have come to appreciate converged devices.
Another problem: at a feature-to-feature level, the new Zune HD beats the pants out of any iPod, including the iPod Touch. But it lacks iPod Touch’s ecosystem of great apps through iTunes, and don’t expect Zune HD to have anywhere nearly as many apps/games as the iPod Touch.
So although the new Zune HD is a really awesome device, we don’t expect it to make any substantial impact for the Redmond giant. The most important thing that will come out of the Zune HD effort is perhaps the user experience, which we hope would carry over to the next version of Windows Mobile.
