Gizmodo 
Enter your username and password.
Tip your editors:
tips@gizmodo.com
Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | Email | Twitter
Editor:
Jason Chen
Email | AIM | Twitter
Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editors:
Jesus Diaz
Email | AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
Email | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
Email | Twitter
Sean Fallon
Email | Twitter
Jack Loftus
Email | Twitter
John Herrman
Email | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Email
Chris Mascari
Email
Danny Allen
Email | Twitter
Rosa Golijan
Email | Twitter
Chris Jacob
Email
Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner
Interns:
Don Nguyen
Email
Kyle VanHemert
Email
Comment Intern:
Nick Ellenoff | Email
Comment Account Questions:
Comments@gizmodo.com
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/21/09
Had a play with the display model - felt cheap, very small, plasticy, and certainly not the quality feel of a Touch or iPhone.
Menu text was almost fuzzy - the UI get's old after about 2 minutes of use.
When people actually get their hands on a unit, rather than just drooling over the rendered publicity images, they'll have a serious reality check.
Hey - at least I tried one - it still sucked IMHO, and clearly hadn't sold out.
09/21/09
[en.wikipedia.org]
[encyclopediadramatica.com]
I wish we had a troll button.
09/20/09
09/20/09
It's NOT better than a Touch. Period. It's just different -it's very good, IMO. I have too many good apps to consider switching, and the one at my local BestBuy was having issues. I also don't think the hardware feels as sexy but the screen is fantastic.
The only think you can say for ZuneHD right now is that it's the 1st PMP to arrive that isn't DOA. It's got a fighting chance, let's watch it play out.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/20/09
There's mounting evidence that they're going to be launched in Canada soon, so here's hoping they at least do the UK shortly..
09/20/09
09/20/09
The apps so far are only being designed by very small groups of people in XNA, but there's no way to distrubute them at the moment, so if you want an app, you just have to download it from a website and upload it to your Zune manually. I'm sure there will be a system like XBL's Indie Games channel soon, but at the moment there isn't, so there's obviously no ads.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/21/09
At launch you have people that just dropped over $200 on a device, the least they could do is toss in a couple free crap games. It's just bad press and one more thing for people to bitch about.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/19/09
I then went home and ordered one from Amazon and was lucky enough to get one of the last ones in stock.
I have posted this before and hope you will all take this to heart. If you like the Zune, buy a Zune. If you like the IPod, buy an IPod. If you feel like bashing anyone else for the decisions they make about freaking media player GET A LIFE!
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/21/09
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/19/09
32GB Zune HD at 12th
16GB Zune HD at 35th
And yes, the 16GB unit is showing as 'In Stock', so it's not lack of units that crushing sales.
Just for reference, iPod Touch is 2nd and 5th.
09/19/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
Like I said to you earlier, the iPod Touch already has a large consumer base and, as such, you could expect them to outsell the Zune HD, especially since consumers are upgrading to the new generation that just came out. The fact that the Zune HD is faring so well against the iPod Touch in spite of its prior 3% market share and Apple's 72% market share tells me that it is gaining that consumer base. If it decreases Apple's market share by so much as a few percentage points, it is a successful product launch. Why is that? Because it is a convincing enough product that it is causing people to convert to it from another product.
And once again I will say this, without and hard numbers regarding the sales, you cannot definitively say that the Zune HD is tanking, nor can you say it is a roaring success. So please, take the Apple out of your mouth and Steve's dick out of your ass and give a product that is selling well it's due respect. When companies compete, it's good for the consumer, regardless of what you feel about the companies involved.
09/20/09
@Nathan Obbards: This about sums up S-Express' thought process.
09/20/09
09/20/09
Best of luck with that graphics business....
09/20/09
[www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net]
09/20/09
09/20/09
His stuff mainly consisted of bashing all windows posts, then praising all mac posts (while simultaneously bashing windows, of course) using no logic whatsoever. For example, he once made a long winded post praising the iPhone and listing every feature it has, while downplaying the importance of features it lacked (I believe he said "fuck flash support" at one point) only to admit that he doesn't even own an iPhone and had only used one a handful of times.
Anytime someone would refute his verbal diarrhea with actual facts, he would either completely ignore it or make a snarky comment unrelated to the argument.
He would get banned, and then come back under a new username and start again trolling again. Rise and repeat for about 8 or 10 usernames.
Around May, he finally quit coming back.
Now we have someone with the exact same MO trolling again on the windows posts. Coincidence?
You be the judge.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
And apparently I really like commas and comma splices. Oh well.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
It's interesting that you bring that up.
My brother is a musician and graphic designer, and as a result, is a big time Mac user. And like many people who use Apple products, bought into the entire "Mac Lifestyle" bit, hook, line and sinker. So along with his Mac, he's got an assortment of iPods, and iPhone and the whole nine yards. I have to admit, looking from the outside, in, the entire Mac Lifestyle this is a bit creepy, kinda like Scientology, in more ways than a few. But it is what it is I guess, and I always say live and let live . . . unless you get in my way, then we may have a problem.
My brother is not very tech savvy, and is not very connected to the tech world. So when new stuff pops up, he has no idea what they are, or that they even exist sometimes.
He's been visiting me on holiday for the last couple of weeks (he's got a month worth of vacation time), and since the Zune HD came out, I have been parading around with my shiny, new 32GB toy, plus spending plenty of quality time with the Zune 4.0 software on my desktop.
My brother who is a long time, die in the wool Mac fan, is completely blown away by both the Zune HD and Zune 4.0 software. Yesterday, he even went so far as to make it clear that the Zune 4.0 software, was "light years" beyond any version of iTunes he has ever used, and that the Zune HD was hands down, "the best music player that I have ever used."
These are all his words, not mine. I don't bother going into technical details with him about Tegra and all that, I just show him what the Zune HD is capable of doing, like the interface, or outputting 720p HD to the big screen in my livingroom via the dock, the Smart DJ, Social, HD Radio, or even device flexibility of DRM content from Zune Marketplace. And he just eats it up. Even started trying to hog my Zune HD whenever he can.
Zune HDs are completely sold out around these parts, but he is definitely looking to get one as soon as possible.
Now here is the catch.
I have not told him yet that Zune HD and Zune 4.0 are Microsoft products. I think he is under the belief that Zune is a startup. I did not put that in his head, yet at the same time, I have not moved to correct his misinformation either.
Like most Mac users, my brother is under the erroneous belief that Microsoft is the bane of their existence, and a pox upon the entire human race. According to them, Microsoft is incapable if developing any good products, and definitely nothing anywhere bordering on the same level of user friendliness and innovation as Mac products. Of course most people who staunchly believe that have not messed around with Win7, Xbox Live, Bing, Home Server, Xbox 360 or Zune. I'm not particularly partial to one tech company vs. another. Being of a more opportunistic personality and holding very little loyalty to anything other than myself, I tend to go after whatever is the best product at the time, which yields the best bang for buck - to hell with product loyalty. However, having stated that, even a person like myself has to admit that Microsoft has been on a roll lately, and shows no signs of slowing down.
I suspect I already know how my brother is going to react when he finally finds out that Microsoft is responsible for this Zune platform that he has fallen so completely in love with over the last week, that he has begun to evangelize it. But then again, the way he keeps going on about it, he may just surprise me, swallow his pride, and just enjoy his own Zune HD when one finally become available.
And this goes back that what Nathan Obbards was saying about having a convincing enough product to convince people to switch. Microsoft has been very successful with this kind of stuff with the Xbox. I read a report a while ago that stated that 50% of all Xbox 360 owners used to be PS2 and PS1 owners. Maintaining a 50% ratio or new adoptees like that, makes for a very successful product. Even if PS3 were outselling Xbox 360, for Microsoft to maintain its original user base from Xbox, and then double that number with former Playstation users, would still make the Xbox 360 an unmitigated success. It's like Nathan Obbards said, they created a niche, and then grew that niche.
With my brother's deep infatuation with the Zune, it's simply a case where Microsoft were smart enough to keep the Microsoft branding to the absolute bare minimum on the Zune product, and then allow the product to speak for itself. It is quite a compelling product. And a lot of Mac die hards like my brother, who don't read sites like Gizmodo, and as a result have no clue that Zune is a Microsoft product, they are going to approach the Zune HD for the first time with an open mind, and many of them are simply going to be blown away.
And I think in part, this is exactly what Microsoft is counting on. They've already created the niche with past past Zune products (none of which I bought by the way - I did not think much of the older Zunes). Now with Zune HD and Zune 4.0, it's all about beginning to grow that niche.
Currently with Zune, Microsoft I have heard only has 3% of the market. If they are able to even double that with Zune HD, then Zune HD will have been a smashing success. If they hit 10% marketshare, then Apple is going to have to start looking at going back to the drawing board with their current offering. 10% marketshare, is a good launching off point to grow a brand from. I remember when Mac computers were only 10% marketshare. Along came one product, the iMac, and virtually overnight Mac was up over 30% marketshare.
So yeah, that entire growing a niche market thing, there is a lot of power to that.
And as for my brother, I think I'll actually let him buy the Zune HD and convince several of his Mac Lifestyle friends to do likewise, before I tell him it is a Micro$atan product.
09/19/09
09/19/09
They then go on to explicitly address the question of whether it's sold out because of high demand, or because of short supply, which they can't actually determine - although they note that the Microsoft store has plenty of stock (implying that it's a supply shortage for the rest of the suppliers - although it might just be that no one knows about the Microsoft Store - so unfortunately, that doesn't prove anything in either direction.)
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/19/09
I dunno, but promoting his comments probably isn't helping.
09/19/09
09/19/09
Its pretty incredible how you guys cant even write ONE freaking article without dissing the Zune HD.
Pretty sad in fact.
09/19/09
09/19/09
I thought Gizmodo's review was very positive, and didn't "diss" anything, unless you think criticism of any sort is a 'diss'.
09/19/09
09/19/09
But for MS, giz always puts them on the "Negative" side, and even with Zune HD, they put it on the "neutral positive" side. Nothing almost ever pleases giz from MS.
If this is was a new Apple product, I can guarantee you there would at least 15 different articles ranging from "the type of screen it has" to "the interaction with its cousins" to "the forming of its body"... *Sigh*
09/19/09
Giz has generally been very positive about the ZuneHD and their coverage of Win7 has been one of the best across the tech blogs.
09/19/09
09/19/09
The former is more a question of it really getting the attention (which they then agree it deserves); the latter implies they ARE getting the attention, but it's uncertain as to whether or not the Zune deserves getting it.
Or I suppose it could be "Maybe it's great that..." which is still kind of negative (although one could argue it's a statement of hope).
Either way, the problem is that it's bad writing. Kind of a passive aggressive way of saying something. It might work when spoken (you can hear the intent), but not when written.
09/19/09
09/19/09
Now that's impressive!
09/19/09
C'mon, if you're going to troll, you have to have a little more effort and reality mixed in.
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/19/09
'If online sales are any indication, then the Zune HD isn't helping Microsoft close the gap with Apple in the lucrative MP3 music player market.
Apple's 32GB iPod touch was the second top seller (behind Kindle) in Amazon's electronics category as of Thursday, while the 32GB Zune HD ranked only seventh. The 16GB Zune HD was a lowly 16th on the list. The 32GB iPod Touch and 32GB Zune HD are both priced at $289. The 16GB Zune HD sells for $219.'
'Several users chided Microsoft for failing to match the iPod's rich application selection—a fact that could limit the Zune HD's appeal.
"If you expected a ton of apps on the Zune marketplace then you will be disappointed," an Amazon customer who goes by the name Gadgetzrock wrote on the company's online review forum. "No one in their right mind would give up the thousands of apps" available for the iPod Touch, wrote another user, G. Vernon.'
[www.informationweek.com]
09/19/09
09/19/09
But what would Amazon know eh?
09/19/09
"The iPhone touch"
Ohh, where can I get one of those? I know of the iPhone and iPod Touch, but now there's an iPhone Touch? Mockery aside, an iPod Touch outselling the Zune HD is not surprising given multiple factors. The Touch already has a large consumer base, as do iPods in general. Given that, it is not surprising that people would be buying a new gen Touch to replace the last gen one they had. People tend to take path dependent routes when purchasing items. If they have worked with something for a while, they will tend to replace it with the same/similar item. The Touch is just that. Given that they had a large marketshare to begin with compared to the Zune's, the mere fact that the Zune is selling so well speaks well of it. To sell so competitively against a device with an already existing fanbase with a larger marketshare tells me that the Zune HD is doing great.
Lastly, you have no evidence, only speculation that the Zune is only selling out because they deliberately short stocked merchants. It may be due to short stocking, it may not be. Furthermore, you cannot blame short stocking on MS if the merchants shorted themselves. So you are assuming that, a, MS deliberately shorted merchants and that, b, the merchants did not short themselves. If shorting did occur, it would not be unreasonable to assume that stores shorted themselves due to how the previous generation of Zune sold.
Now please stop trolling the threads and being such a biased obnoxious fanboy. Some of us here like good discussions of products untainted by biased and myopic perspectives.
09/19/09
09/19/09
Actually, Spannu brings up a very good point. Amazon has an open review system, so anyone, everyone, and their mother can write whatever they want on any product.
Public user reviews generate a LOT of misguided information. And they should never be quoted in an article.
Look at the two quoted reviews. "If you expect lots of apps, you will be disappointed...". This is after Microsoft announced that applications would be very limited at first because they're being very closed with applications. Everyone already knows it doesn't have that many apps. That's not even the market for the Zune.
And the second comment is just plain bs. The guy probably didn't even buy the product, yet he's posting a negative review based on what, speculation?
It's like people who post on Newegg saying, "I didn't buy this product, but Company X has always delivered quality, and I expect them to do so again."
And no self-respecting journalist would ever quote eBay reviews:
"iPod is awesome!!! A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++, Zune HD suckzzzz F - - - - - ".
09/19/09
09/19/09
09/19/09