On the Eve of New Media Players
With AMD's Barcelona stuck in the starting gate, the major tech news story for next month is going to be digital media players. You know, the cool iPod versus "everyone else." Both camps have done a great job of keeping their new stuff under wraps, but speculation is rampant, and according to the Apple lawyers that keep handing out "cease & desist" order like Altoids at a garlic festival, some correct info just might be floating around.
Apple has a press event scheduled for 9/5, and it is widely believed that new iPods will be featured. Looking at the iPhone for clues, it does seem likely that the Video iPod, which was shafted on the last upgrade with minimal changes will get a full, no, make that full screen makeover. Whether it gets a virtual scroll wheel, or the iPhone interface is still up to speculation. The Nano is expected to grow to a healthy 16 GB capacity, and the Shuffle is expected to add a new color, red. The addition of the Mac OS X to the line should also add in some new possibilities. the open questions are what will be the hard drive capacities of the Video iPod which currently tops out at 80 gigs, and could double if they wanted it to. The other wild card is if the iPod line will incorporate WiFi like some other players have.
This brings us to the Zune. Microsoft's original Zune, a rebadged Toshiba Gigabeat, never really lived up to expectations in functionality. Still, it has a devout following among the anti-Apple crowd in search of hard drive capacity. What should we look for in Microsoft's sophomore effort? The Zune is widely expected to expand the lineup to include an entry level flash based player. This is clearly a good idea, and much needed to complete the lineup as the flash based players outsell the hard drive gear. The open question is what will happen to their flagship player. Will the hard drive capacity expand, and by how much? I'm hoping for a capacity that the Apple folks don't currently have, such as 40 to 60 gigs for the entry level, and a top end 120 or 160 gig player. That type of capacity at an affordable price should make up for its chunkiness, and less than svelte lines. The other issue is if it will continue to include WiFi, and will they make better use of it, such as internet radio, like the Sansa Connect does. Finally, is the Zune going to offer a full screen like the Video iPod is expected to, or else they will look like last year's Christmas with the same old screen size. Unless Microsoft gets more competitive here, and tries to leapfrog Steve Jobs & Crew, they will be perpetually playing catch up.
See you in September. I'm sure it will be an interesting month as we follow the introduction of these new players. Of course, I'll have plenty of analysis of whatever gets introduced, so stay tuned.
--Jonas
Apple has a press event scheduled for 9/5, and it is widely believed that new iPods will be featured. Looking at the iPhone for clues, it does seem likely that the Video iPod, which was shafted on the last upgrade with minimal changes will get a full, no, make that full screen makeover. Whether it gets a virtual scroll wheel, or the iPhone interface is still up to speculation. The Nano is expected to grow to a healthy 16 GB capacity, and the Shuffle is expected to add a new color, red. The addition of the Mac OS X to the line should also add in some new possibilities. the open questions are what will be the hard drive capacities of the Video iPod which currently tops out at 80 gigs, and could double if they wanted it to. The other wild card is if the iPod line will incorporate WiFi like some other players have.
This brings us to the Zune. Microsoft's original Zune, a rebadged Toshiba Gigabeat, never really lived up to expectations in functionality. Still, it has a devout following among the anti-Apple crowd in search of hard drive capacity. What should we look for in Microsoft's sophomore effort? The Zune is widely expected to expand the lineup to include an entry level flash based player. This is clearly a good idea, and much needed to complete the lineup as the flash based players outsell the hard drive gear. The open question is what will happen to their flagship player. Will the hard drive capacity expand, and by how much? I'm hoping for a capacity that the Apple folks don't currently have, such as 40 to 60 gigs for the entry level, and a top end 120 or 160 gig player. That type of capacity at an affordable price should make up for its chunkiness, and less than svelte lines. The other issue is if it will continue to include WiFi, and will they make better use of it, such as internet radio, like the Sansa Connect does. Finally, is the Zune going to offer a full screen like the Video iPod is expected to, or else they will look like last year's Christmas with the same old screen size. Unless Microsoft gets more competitive here, and tries to leapfrog Steve Jobs & Crew, they will be perpetually playing catch up.
See you in September. I'm sure it will be an interesting month as we follow the introduction of these new players. Of course, I'll have plenty of analysis of whatever gets introduced, so stay tuned.
--Jonas
Labels: Apple, iPod, media player, Microsoft, Zune
posted by digitaldoc at 6:19 AM
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