September 4, 2008 2:04 PM PDT
120GB Zune coming to a store near you
Updated at 2:30 p.m. PDT with Microsoft comment, and additional photos.
A reader found the 120GB Zune for sale at Fry's for $250 Thursday.
(Credit: Joe)A reader was casually perusing the aisles of his local Fry's Electronics today hoping to buy an 80GB Zune. To Joe's surprise, he found the only-recently-confirmed 120GB Zune there, right below the Product Red 80GB version.
There were "about six" of the 120GB versions that he could see, but no new signage advertising it, he tells CNET.
He paid $250 for the device.
A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that this is "just the beginning" of the rollout of the newest Zune, and more retailers in other regions will start offering the device over the next few weeks.
(Credit:
Joe)
(More pics after the break.)
(Credit:
Joe)
(Credit:
Joe)
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
I have the 80 right now and have only used 30gb of it, so I guess I can't justify it.
Can you help?
take my archos 704 for example. i love it. doesn;t cost as much and it's not made by either manufacturer :)
I don't think the issue with the Zune is necessarily the Apple brainwashing, if the product was really that compelling, then word of mouth would have bolstered the product and Microsoft's marketshare would have increased accordingly, eg: the best product will win (with best being whatever marketing says it is, right?). Moreover, with increased sales comes increased product integration, and if, for example, the Zune had any type of significant marketshare, there would be connection and integration within automobiles and home theater systems. Sure, there is Ford Sync that allows for integration with the Zune, but that is given since Microsoft developed Sync in the first place.
It's not as if Microsoft has not spent a significant amount of money pushing the Zune (just check out historical marketing campaigns at MySpace) and it's not as if Microsoft did not attempt to create special versions of the Zune (eg: the Halo Zune) - it's just that no really cared since the product did not offer enough differentiation versus the other players to make it unique enough to be of interest to the average consumer. Squirting was conceptually a useful idea, but was hindered due to the DRM created by sending songs to your fellow Zune owners regardless of the actual copyright status of the song and moreover, due to the lack of Zunes out there, squirting became a relatively rare occurrence.
Increased storage alone does not make a compelling product to the masses and I'm sure Microsoft knows this. What will be interesting is to what the next generation of the Zune does as Microsoft clearly has to dig deep if they expect to compete and make any sort of dent in the market.
That's what we'll be saying about the Zune a few years from now.
As it is, the Zune has no real compelling features to tout it.
Maybe come the next product idea, Microsoft should do what Apple did - find a market that has potential, but no real stand-out competitor... then sell a solid product that stands out in it.
Instead, MSFT keeps chasing markets with already established players, and (at least in their more visible efforts) fails miserably or consistently stays in third (or worse) place. That, or they chase markets which are niche at best (Surface, Tablets, etc).
If it works fine for you, cool - enjoy it as much as you can. But consider that it doesn't sell very well, and that sticking in a big hard disk (esp. when one's biggest competitor already did that) isn't really much of a compelling reason at all.
/P
In addition to everything iPod Classic has (except support for Mac), Zune adds:
- Bigger, crispier screen
- Sturdier, virtually scratch free construction
- WiFi: exchanging songs among Zunes is soooo last year. The killer scenario for WiFi is to liberate you completely from having to physically connect to your home computer. I, for instance, have my first gen Zune in my car the whole time. It syncs wirelessly and I always have the latest downloaded songs and podcasts to go. If you have the Zune connected to your TV, you have a media extender right there, no cost added.
- ZunePass - one cannot praise subscription enough. If you like to listen to your songs over and over again, buying or, for some folks, stealing is your thing. Zune also has that. But if you like the latest and greatest and like to be adventurous regarding your songs - exploring new artists, new genres - subscription is for you. For the price of one CD a month I've downloaded more than 450 albuns in a little more than 1 year. For those concerned with having to pay to continue listening to those songs: I could pay 10 years straight of subscription and not download anything else and I'd still have paid much less than I'd have to pay to own those albuns. And it's all legal!
- FM: don't underestimate the power of local radio stations when you are commuting and want to know why your bus is stuck on traffic...
- Zune software: makes the bloated iTunes look like an 80's spreadsheet. Seriously! First time Microsoft can claim to have a more streamlined software than Apple in recent years (which doesn't say a lot for other MS products)... But that's just what it is. In the Zune vs. iPod comparison, desktop software is a big plus for Zune.
- Zune is much more beautiful than iPod classic: I know, this is a hot topic for some and it's not to say Apple design is ugly. But you can be clean without being uninspiring. And iPod classic design is pretty much the same since its inception (thus, the classic). For me, it's run its course about two generations ago. If you look at the Zune in pictures and think it's just squared and bricky, you obviously never handled one. It's as squared as Bang&Olufsen designs. That's, by no means, a bad thing. And it looks really gorgeous in person with its huge, shiny screen.
Zune doesn't sell like iPods, of course. There's something called momentum and people get locked on what they already know. That's the nature of things and it's difficult to break. iPods still provide the minimun necessary functionality to keep people satisfied, so why changing?
It doesn't mean iPod is better, at all... And it doesn't mean that people shouldn't get more and better things.
So, why should I buy an iPod again?
- by toosday September 4, 2008 5:26 PM PDT
- A bit more marketing would do the Zune justice. Granted, it's practically impossible to out-market Apple. They're just great at it. However, I was absolutely shocked by how many of my friends don't have PMPs. I guess I assumed nearly everyone of middle-class status my age who liked music already had an iPod like myself. I was wrong.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (110 Comments)However, pound for pound, the Zune has far more features than the iPod Classic or the iPod Nano. (Though it pales in comparison to the iPod Touch.) Windows Media Center integration is just one of them. More marketing (esp. on television) would let users who don't have a PMP know this. After all, when you aren't integrated into the iPod or Zune ecosystem, it's easier to be more objective about which player you choose. Most of the people who bash the Zune or iPod are already using one or the other.