Ha. Anyone who thought the Republicans couldn't be toppled is an analyst who wears blinders and has no clue about the big picture.

I thought this article was interesting, but that tag line at the end really made it clear that you have no idea what you're talking about.

:d

This is completely ridiculous.

Of all the iPod owners that I know, not one is seriously considering switching to the Zune. 58%? 58% of what tiny sample of consumers? Maybe if the wifi worked as it was promised iPod users would be enticed to switch, but I don't see Apple losing too many customers to Microsoft at this point. The only thing that interests me about the Zune is that the proprietary DRM is sure to be hacked and stripped and the business model will crumble giving easily pirated content to the people.

The Zune seems like a fine device and is bringing some good ideas to the table, but to imply that apple is going to lose 58% of its market share is complete lunacy. I'm sure MS will move plenty of units and find a lot of happy customers, but do you seriously think apple can be toppled right now? I can't think of a single DAP that's been announced for '06 or beyond that has the power to make iPod users "switch in droves".

Apple is going to be in this game for a long time. I'll put my money on that.

Think about it, people are buying mp3 players EVERYDAY, know they will have a choice, do you purchase the IPOD
(which has millions of users and songs and was the product of a great advertising campaign)
or the ZUNE
(larger screen, millions of songs, and music sharing capabilities, and will have a $100 million ad campaign.)
The choice will be hard and if Apple doesnt start adding new features that rivals the ZUNE then market share will begin to fall,
I am not saying that it will happen in a year or even 5 years, the zune will have to take the smaller competitors' market share first to build a base and then start to swoon the IPOD users,
Disclaimer: I own shares of MSFT and have a MP3 player (but when ZUNE comes out I will compare the 2 to see which one i will choose, i will not choose the ZUNE solely because I own the stock but it will come into play, I am not saying that i would not buy apple stock, i actually would purchase it for this quarter, blahblahblah
hey does anyone remember what happened last time apple and microsoft competed against each other in the pc market?

I'll do a brief rundown here:

1) Though the Zune screen may be larger, it in fact is the same screen resolution as the current iPod.

2) The Zune is nothing more than a Toshiba Gigabeat in a different skin.

3) The interface for putting songs from a Windows machine onto the Zune will suck, nowhere near as simple as iTunes.

4) I think people get too focused on the hardware and don't consider how many people use iTunes. The reason that people will stay loyal to the iPod is because iTunes offers a simple and logical way to manage media on an iPod ONLY.

5) Come January the iPod line will get a shake up with a new high end video version that I can guarantee you and when that occurs, that Zune will be an overpriced paperweight.

Sorry, the interpretation of ABI's survey results has been absolutely botched by half the tech journalists out there. And did you even *read* Buckell's piece? Here's a sample...

"However, looking carefully at the study's methodology, worries about the iPod's marketshare diminishing drastically are set aside in favor of questions about the study itself. Dig this: the number was reached by showing participants a picture of the Zune media player and then "other competitive media players" and being asked if they would pick the Zune.

The specific mention of an iPod is not in the language. Tell you what, show me a picture of a Zune next to a turd and I'll be 100% likely to indicate a Zune preference, but it doesn't mean I'm going to buy one. We'd like to see a little more detail about the survey in question before panicking just yet."

So, please, next time you use another journalist's work as a reference, consider reading beyond the headline.

"Zune's social networking will be based in Zune Marketplace, which is equivalent of iTunes"

No. As I understand it, Zune Marketplace is in no way equivalent to the iTS. It lacks user-submitted playlists and podcasts, two means by which iTS users have been sharing ideas and expressing themselves for a while now. And, the Zune desktop software does not let you share your music over the network with others, an incredibly collaborative feature of iTunes.

Rather than open up new avenues for music lovers to interact and express themselves, Microsoft has chosen rather to curtail such activity, while adding a feature that is universally recognized as broken. The Zune does not seem to at all represent a Microsoft understanding of the trend towards social technology, because it leaves out key, established methods of social activity.

The iPod already has "personal sharing", it's called unplug your headphones, and plug your friend's phones in. Faster, and it doesn't disable your songs. Later, you can hang out and exchange songs.

I'm an iPod owner (I have two, a 20GB and a 4GB Nano). I don't see any features on the Zune that would make me want to replace either iPod.

In fact, I believe the wireless feature must have a negative impact on battery life which is one of the most important features of any portable device. So I think that many Zune users will want to disable it to get better battery life.

What I don't understand is, why all my old music from Microsoft won't work with my new music from Microsoft (if I buy the Zune). I bought their player because it was a better deal than the iPod I thought, I was told that if I bought music from Apple years ago it would still work with new iPods.

Does that mean if next year Microsoft releases a new Zune, I will have to buy all new music for a third time?