Zune Update

In my previous article about Microsoft’s latest attempt to catch up to the iPod, no pricing, ship date or official dimensions were available. Since then, more concrete details have become available. First off, Microsoft has finalized the price for their 30GB POS device: $249.99 US. That’s just 99¢ more than the equivalent capacity iPod. The device will go on sale on November 14.

Zune Marketplace will sell music for 79 Microsoft points per track, which works out to 98.75¢, since 80 Microsoft points will cost you a buck. So for all intents and purposes, songs are the same price as they are on Apple’s iTunes Store (99¢). There will also be an all you can eat subscription service for $14.99/month. This is more expensive than some of the PlaysForSure subscription services available from other vendors. Microsoft Marketplace will launch with only music for sale. Video will come down the road.

The shipping Zune player is considerably bigger than I had estimated based on the publicity photos previously released. Of course, any time you have to estimate, you’re bound to be off a tad, not to mention publicity photos could be misleading. My guess was that the device would be between the size of an iPod 30GB and iPod 80GB. The reality is it’s bigger than even the 80GB iPod, so owners of that wonderful device can still brag they have 50GB more storage AND a smaller device. The actual dimensions are 4.4 inches x 2.4 inches x 0.58 inch with a weight of 5.6 ounces. That makes it 13% bigger/2% heavier than the iPod 80GB, and 45% bigger/30% heavier than iPod 30GB it’s trying to compete directly with.

So all that extra bulk must be for a bigger battery that will beat the iPod’s battery life, right? Wrong. According to Engadget:

They were pretty tight lipped about it, but our new pal and independent analyst for Directions on Microsoft, Matt Rosoff, let us know that according to his contacts, with wireless off we can expect a 12 hours of music playback at 128Kbps, 3.5 hours for video playback, and 4.5 hours when running a slide show. Compare that to the 30GB iPod’s 14/4 hours and the 80GB iPod’s 20/6 hours, and it’s a little difficult to fully envision the payoff for that added thickness and height.

So iPod 80GB owners can also brag they have nearly double the battery life of the Zune as well. We can only imagine what the battery must be like with WiFi turned on.

Does Microsoft really think people will buy a bigger, uglier device that has worse battery life JUST because it has a bigger screen and gimmicky WiFi that is next to useless? Anyone serious about video is going to prefer the higher capacity and longer battery life of the 80GB iPod, and the casual video user will really notice how much smaller/lighter the iPod 30GB model is. Microsoft is going to learn a hard lesson from the Zune this holiday shopping season. But hey, they have to spend that cash hoard on something, nothing says it has to be successful. One thing is obvious: the Zune isn’t even fit to compete against other products on the market from the likes of Creative and iRiver, against the iPod it’s DOA.

[Edit 10/3/2006, 11:18 am: Changed "for all intensive purposes" to "for all intents and purposes". Thanks to reader "Poppycock" for catching that error.]