Zune is the new MP3 player which is sold in last November. But actually I haven't heard about Zune until now, and it's almost one year. It was given the name "iPod killer" to it, but its name seemed not so loud by now. In the past 5 years, there were many challengers tried to fight with iPod but were defeated soon. Today the new challenger is from Microsoft and it might be the strongest competitor iPod has met.

If Zune want to defeat iPod, it has to have something different. What special does Zune have? From users reflections, Zune doesn't have every function as iPod. It concentrates on the music and video playing. With Toshiba's sound device, it has better sound quality than iPod. The most special feature of Zune is the Wi-Fi service. We can listen FM radio with it, and we can share the music, too. For the outline, the size is larger than iPod. It has a big screen and a circle panel, but it cannot rotate. The panel is four direction button, and there are one button each on two sides of the circle.

Does these feature attract user? Most of the user think that Zune has much less beauty than iPod. Apple's design is famous for delicacy and usability. Besides iPod's beautiful outline, it created the circle panel that let user control with intuition. What more, it sets control buttons around the circle panel, and user can always control what he wants without leaving his finger to other place. In Maeda's view, people will organize what they see and categorize it according to psychology. Thus, it will be well organized when the buttons are set around the panel then divided in other place. And now Zune divided them, so it is less easier to manipulate the device than iPod. What more, when most users are used to the circle panel, creating one that couldn't be rotate will confuse users. Everyone said Zune is big and heavy, and the color is not so cool. When Zune doesn't have a good design, it shall have some service greater than iPod. However, many user doubts that Wi-Fi sharing is useful. First, it can only support the same Zune user to share, and it's not easy to find one. Second, even if we find one, we won't ask him what he has. The most important one, the music shared by others can be listened only 3 times within 3 days, and it will ask you to buy the music or not when time is up. I'll say this is a bad idea. The thought of sharing is good, but it doesn't have good usability. This is the problem of Knowledge in the Head vs. Knowledge in the World. What Microsoft thinks is not really what users want. In this case, the sound quality is Zune's only weapon. Without this feature, Zune has nothing better than iPod.

However, it is too early to declare Zune's failure. After all, the maker is Microsoft, and there should be 2nd or 3rd version of Zune. If it receives users comments and improve it, Zune may have its advantages in the future. But iPod's advantageous position in design is hard to defeat, too. There is a long way for Zune to go.