Analyst sees Zune, hears static

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said he has looked at the Zune documents that Toshiba filed last week with the Federal Communications Commission and is not impressed.

"We are frankly underwhelmed by the much-hyped Zune device," Wu said in a research note on Wednesday. "It appears that the Zune is essentially a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat that has seen limited success."

Among its drawbacks, Wu said, is that its controls do not appear to include something similar to the iPod's scroll wheel for navigating through large collections of music or photos.

Microsoft's strong brand name and big ad budget should help, he said, but the product doesn't appear to him to stand out much from other devices that use Microsoft's technology, such as those from Creative and iRiver.

"We are frankly underwhelmed by the specs (technical, aesthetics, design) on the much-hyped Zune device, at least on a competitive basis," Wu said.