OPEN BYTES – cave quid dicis, quando, et cui.

Captain Kirk has a problem, its new years eve and the Enterprise has relied on a 30gig Zune to entertain its crew....lets just say, the crew have abandoned ship and joined Khan on his, since Khan is lucky enough to have an Ipod instead.

Whats Zune?  I hear some of my collegues at work say.  Thats not really a surprise because its an example of another product which Microsoft has (IMO) seen the sucess of others and tried to emulate it, unfortunately (IMO) not succeding and from the people Ive spoken with seen as the “poormans” Ipod, which is largely irellevant since it sales have been blown out of the water by Apples offering.

For the record I dont (and wouldnt) personally own an Ipod either, but its worth mentioning that there is a rumour on the Net that Microsoft is going to expand Zunes deployment to other countries.  Will it take off?  Well looking at some of Microsofts other schemes and the popularity and brandname the Ipod has, I personally would doubt it but at the end of the day it will be the consumer who decides.

Lets remind ourselves of some of the posts that have been placed on the Net in regards to the Zune:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9924554-1.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/01/business/fi-zune1

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/appleaday/blog/2008/12/the_zunes_new_years_eve_of_des.html

Heres what Electric Pig have to say about a possible UK Zune: http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/01/26/will-zune-survive-long-enough-to-hit-uk/

and heres the rumor in regards to Zune being deployed on a wider scale: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/04/evidence-mounting-zune-platform-update-to-be-international.ars?utm_source=microblogging&utm_medium=arstch&utm_term=One%20Microsoft%20Way&utm_campaign=microblo

Which comes courtesy of a Twitter account which I believe is something which Steve Ballmer would dream about: OneMicrosoftWay

So lets hear from anyone reading this.  Do you have a Zune?  Are you happy with it?

Goblin - bytes4free@googlemail.com