Most of the press that I have read has said that Microsoft did OK. It sounds like they just copied the iPod and iTunes as much as possible and added a few minor new features. I have seen some higer quality pictures of the brown version and it looks better than other pics I have seen. Still not a prefered color for me. The rave seems to be about the texture of the surface. It is a rubberized metal. I recall this same texture on a Newton which I bought. The problem was that eventually the rubber scrapes off. It looks great initially though.
All in all, I think Microsoft spent a little more time making sure things are right on this device than most things they release. But it does not seem to have any killer feature that would make people switch in droves. Plus it is hard to switch in terms of time and cost.
I believe it comes in with the large disadvantage of not playing movies initially, and lacking the features that make iTunes great. After hearing the awesome success of the iPod Shuffle, and with Microsoft attacking one genre of iPod (the video version), it's hard for me to see Microsoft making the huge inroads onto the iPod marketshare that they want. (At least with these kinds of incremental moves).
2 comments:
Most of the press that I have read has said that Microsoft did OK. It sounds like they just copied the iPod and iTunes as much as possible and added a few minor new features. I have seen some higer quality pictures of the brown version and it looks better than other pics I have seen. Still not a prefered color for me. The rave seems to be about the texture of the surface. It is a rubberized metal. I recall this same texture on a Newton which I bought. The problem was that eventually the rubber scrapes off. It looks great initially though.
All in all, I think Microsoft spent a little more time making sure things are right on this device than most things they release. But it does not seem to have any killer feature that would make people switch in droves. Plus it is hard to switch in terms of time and cost.
I believe it comes in with the large disadvantage of not playing movies initially, and lacking the features that make iTunes great. After hearing the awesome success of the iPod Shuffle, and with Microsoft attacking one genre of iPod (the video version), it's hard for me to see Microsoft making the huge inroads onto the iPod marketshare that they want. (At least with these kinds of incremental moves).
Post a Comment