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November 17, 2006

ipod

Zune guts vs. iPod guts

Posted Nov. 17, ’06, 12:30 PM PT by Collin Allen
Category | iPod

iPod HDMIT grad and renown hardware hacker Andrew “bunnie” Huang is at it again. Most known for the initial hacking of the Xbox console, bunnie has disassembled a new Zune and posted photos for all to see. Not surprisingly, the innards of the Zune are quite similar to those of the latest iPod.

Microsoft’s Zune operates on the same model hard drive as the latest iPod, which is manufactured almost exclusively by Toshiba (the real winners of the Zune-iPod race), and the battery also appears to be of the same type. Aside from a different CPU and video decoder, the Zune is basically an iPod with Microsoft software. For the curious, here’s a high res photo of the Zune logic board, where you’ll note the Freescale CPU, Focus video decoder, Samsung RAM, WiFi antenna, and more.

From a technical standpoint, the Zune doesn’t have a whole lot more to offer than the iPod, which really drives home the fact that the MP3 player war comes down to software and integration, where Apple is king. I don’t like to “call” consumers’ approval before it happens, but I think we know who will win this showdown.

[via Hack-a-day]


1 Comments

matthew said:

"MP3 player war comes down to software and integration"

If by that you mean "ease of use" I agree, but I think ID also plays a part.

Although not as bad, the Zune's ID and fit and finish reminds me a little of how the pre-iPod Archos products had a bulky and incomplete feeling about them.

I also don't know that I fully agree with the notion that the iPod is the hands down winner from a sales point of view.

The iPod is "better" no doubt, but the Zune plays to a larger primed audience. That's to say that Microsoft's going to have an easier time selling a Zune to Windows users than Apple is selling to Windows users simply because of how much more familiar the Win crowd is with MS over Apple.

Apple has made astonishing inroads, that much is obvious, but Microsoft still has green fields in front of them and they've been very skilled at selling products to the masses that are not up to Apple's standards.

November 17, 2006 1:29 PM

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