Microsoft Zune - worst christmas gift this year

Microsoft Zune | $150 to $250

To take on the iPod, Apple’s sleek little Goliath with record-breaking sales and a spot in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, Microsoft last year unveiled the Zune: a larger, heavier, equally-expensive device. What did it have that the iPod didn’t? The ability to temporarily share songs with others Zunes. Of course, this interesting feature was crippled by a three-play or three-day expiration (whichever came first). Microsoft also had the questionable logic of offering the brick-shaped device in brown. Quite simply, instead of killing the iPod, the Zune barely made a whimper when it was introduced.



Cut to this year. Apple has revamped their entire iPod line, shrinking their already-tiny Nanos and adding the iPhone’s multitouch interface to a non-phone media player. So how does Microsoft respond? By matching the size and feature set of the previous year’s iPods and not even attempting to compete on price (the updated Zunes cost pretty much exactly the same as the new iPods). It’s almost as if Microsoft didn’t anticipate Apple making a single update or change to their constantly evolving line of players.