Steamd

Last week at my company’s Christmas party, I was having a conversation with a few of my co-workers and their wives. The topic of conversation shifted to the iPod and one of my co-worker’s wives brought up a good question: Is there a good alternative to the iPod? My response to her was that the latest generation of the Microsoft Zune has received good reviews. I read a lot of different news feeds and blog posts and the general consensus is that the second generation of Zunes are pretty darn good and actually top the iPod in some ways.

Paul Thorrott has an excellent review of the latest batch of Zunes from Microsoft. His review is very much on the level and he doesn’t seem to show any bias in his review. He states right up front that he didn’t give the first Zune a good review. Yeah, that first Zune Microsoft put out was indeed an abysmal combination of hardware and software. Not very many people liked it at all. He says that the new Zunes are not without their problems but are far and away a better product than the first Zunes.

“Is this a revolution in the making? Not quite, not yet: Apple will still sell untold iPods this holiday season. But the Zune is no longer a laughing stock and some of the changes Microsoft has made, both in the hardware and in the software, will have Apple racing to catch up. I like what I see here.”

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Zune deserves a place as the #2 media player on the market but I’m not so sure about it topping the iPod anytime soon. The primary problem with it is this: No Mac compatibility! Now, you could say that this only affects about 5% of Microsoft’s potential customer base. Then again that 5% is just as important as the rest. It’s the same argument I have with web designers and developers creating sites that only work with Internet Explorer. To dismiss a percentage of your clientèle like this is no different than designing a building that does not accommodate for the blind and/or disabled. Simply put, it’s not a good business decision. As such, I still recommend the iPod over the Zune for this very reason.