Zune branded 'a complete, humiliating failure'

By

Damning review predicts 'just plain dreadful' player will be dead in six months.

Zune branded 'a complete, humiliating failure'
A damning review of Microsoft’s new Zune media player has predicted that the player will be dead in the water within six months.

Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Andy Ihnatko pulled no punches in his assessment of the player. He found it difficult to install and lacking compatibility with either Windows Media Player or Microsoft’s Playsforsure scheme. It is also, he believes, loaded with features that record companies like but which users will hate.

"Avoid, is my general message,” he writes.

“The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.”

Other points of contention include the lack of support for podcasts (described as “insanity”), Wi-Fi that can only be used to send heavily DRMed tracks rather than useful features like wireless synchronisation and the fact that Microsoft pays a fee to record companies for each player it sells.

"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it, " Ihnatko reports Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal Music Group as saying.

"So it's time to get paid for it."

He concludes that as Microsoft has chosen to ignore consumer needs in favour of the desires of the recording industry the player will be dead within six months, and he wishes it good riddance.
Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright ©v3.co.uk
Tags:

Most Read Articles

NSW gov to house drones permanently at traffic hotspots

NSW gov to house drones permanently at traffic hotspots

Health signs $37m device-as-a-service deal

Health signs $37m device-as-a-service deal

Third of chip production could face copper supply disruptions by 2035

Third of chip production could face copper supply disruptions by 2035

ANZ rolls out new customer-facing tech

ANZ rolls out new customer-facing tech

Log In

  |  Forgot your password?