I guess my little in car, constant use test on my Zune 80 has taken it's toll on my Zune 80 (aka BigDaddyZune). For the 3rd time in 2 weeks, my Zune's About page looks like this...

Rutroh raggy...

That's it, a Zune 80 Deal at Wal Mart.

Steve Ballmer was interviewed today by CIO magazine and the Zune came up, more or less in the context of “What the devil were you thinking?� In the process of answering, Mr. Ballmer made clear to me at least that for all the attacks and mockery he gets in the blogs and tech sites, he really does GET it.

CIO: Why has Microsoft developed Zune?

Ballmer: At the end of the day, one of the big trends is that all content is going digital. And if we don’t have the software and services that are useful, helpful and valuable for the consumption of music and video, we are sort of not really a player.

Now, we built the Zune hardware with the Zune software - and what you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc.

CIO: It seems to me to be a tricky one because Apple is out there, and they have a pretty good product - but also they have this kind of cult following of people who are just going to buy, because it’s Apple. That must be a frustrating thing to compete against.

Ballmer: They may have a cult following in the music business, and we got about 97 percent of PC users using our stuff. 97 percent may not constitute a cult! But I wouldn’t trade that for a cult!

Zune on mobile devices other then the Zune player itself? Hopefully this means that we will soon see the end of Windows Media Player on mobile devices, and have Zune software build into Windows Mobile. Imagine being able to sync media and music on your phone using Zune.

I think I understand now that Microsoft is viewing Zune not as an iPod competitor, but as an iTunes competitor…perhaps with an eye towards unifying the media experience across all Microsoft products using Zune. I think that would be an excellent plan and hopefully will bear fruit in the near future, perhaps as soon as in the increasingly modular Windows 7, and WM 7.

Posted on Behalf of Zealot at Mobilitysite.

Remember when you would visit a company and they would throw you a pen or keychain complete with their company name and phone number? That was a win/win right? I mean, you get a free pen and they have their phone number in your hand for easy retrieval. Well, I know the Zunes aren't inexpensive enough to give out to customers like a pen, but the rate at which Microsoft is cobranding Zunes kind of reminds me of this.

Is it smart to have all these special edition Zunes or do you think it cheapens the appearance of the product? I like special edition things, but only when they are indeed "Special". I eluded to my opinion on this a little in my post announcing the Gears of War II Zune yesterday. I think that they are putting too many branded Zunes out there. Hell, I can't remember them all either.

Not much to say other than, here is another Zune Branded with something. We've had a Halo Zune, 2 dozen Zunes with text and/or graphics from bands/companies i've never heard of, now this. I will admit, the box is pretty nice looking and the graphics on the back are nice too.

Source: Engadget

PS. I am going to buy a Zune 120 in the next couple weeks. I wanna see one in person so I can feel like I know what I am talking about again.

I got a tip on an article that is sure to spark a little conversation either way. On the other hand, there are surely 20 reasons why the iPod is better than the Zune. Let's not forget that the Zune is not a competitor to the iPod Touch or iPhone.

Let me also say, this is not my article. There are some things I don't agree with, but hey... It's their article.

Many audiophiles believe that Apple’s iPod range aren’t the best media players on the market with sub-par audio quality and limited functionality. While fancy, they are fairly basic with inflated prices. The iPod’s popularity is fuelled by fashionistas and passionate Apple fans but also by consumers that get caught up in the hype – buying Apple because it’s ‘cool’. The Microsoft Zune aims to change this, and to an extent, they already have. We’ve extracted the top 20 reasons why we believe the Zune is the better choice in the media player war.

Read the rest at Gadgetzone.

One of, what appears to be an Uncle Walt Protege, posted a laughable post on All Things Digital. The dudes name is John Psomething. He posted the following today...

A “regularly scheduled maintenance� outage will take Microsoft’s Zune platform offline for up to 48 hours beginning today. So if you’re among the five Zune owners who comprise the “Social� and you’ve actually noticed that it’s suddenly gone missing–along with Zune Marketplace and the Zune Net forums–and you’re bothered by their absence, this is why. Microsoft (MSFT) offered no explanation for the outage, just a brief apology: “We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you. Please check back soon. We look forward to sharing our picks, plays and recommendations with you.�

So, what I want to know is why anyone would make a post on a heavily read blog like the iWall Street Journal that only addresses "5 Known Users". Is this post playing up to the iAudience that this blog might cater to? (I don't read the site, so I don't know what they cater too, I am just making assumptions. Wrong or right, I don't care) I have the right to exercise fanboyism here, it's a Zune site after all. Is All Things Digital an Anti-Zune site?

So we have 5 Zune Users. So let's do some math eh? The same jackass, posted this in an earlier bash of the Zune...

Great, but will that make a difference, with the Zune market share hovering at 4 percent (compared to Apple at 71 percent)?

OK, so Apple's 71% Market share quite impressive I admit. I do also realize that the iPod has been on the market for how many years? It was the only "real" digital media player for how long? Zune has been in the game for almost 2 years, fighting an uphill battle too.

Anyhow, if 4% of the market share = 5 Zune Users, then there are only 88 Apple Media Player users. What Media Player do the other 31 people use?

Wait, so my daughter, coworker, and I only have 2 other Zune owners to squirt songs to?

1st let me apologize for bailing on GotZune. I let some personal feelings get in the way of my passion.

It was a short, and needed hiatus. I had something happen recently that took the sails out of my enthusiasm. The event that caused it can’t be erased or fixed, but I have to move on. I am very passionate about Zune and GotZune has become a great resource for biased and unbiased Zune news and opinion. It is not fair to the readers for me to let something like what happened ruin the site. What has happened is done and I am going to move forward here. Nothing should change here. Just consider this as me taking a few weeks off. Before anyone asks, I don’t want to share what caused my hot temper to boil over out of respect for those involved, but let’s just say that I have cooled off and want to move forward.  

I do this for my love for Zune and those feelings are the only thing I am accountable to. That converts into what I do here and hopefully all the readers of GotZune appreciate what we do here. Thanks for reading everyone. Please remember, for a lot of bloggers, this is just a hobby. It will take me time to get back in full swing, but when I do, watch out.

Zune 3.0 - As promised, I did make 1 Zune post on my personal blog about 3. It was short and sweet though with no commentary. It took me 2 weeks to care enough to upgrade.

Update on the "Zune 80 Continuous Play… How long can it last?" post. I discontinued the test after 1.5 months.

Hey Drew! How is the Blue Zune 8 working for ya?

As you might have seen in the "" post, I am wrapping both of these contests up early. Sorry to anyone that didn't make it to enter.

I also need to apologize. There are less cases left than I thought and they are all for the Zune 80/120. The 4/8/16GB usable cases are gone. I am really sorry for that.

Anyhow, the 5 winners are:
Juice702, Ozzy Gomez, Leif902, vuurflits, and Dragonx C39

Contact me via the contact form with your name, mailing address and phone number and i'll get these out to you asap.

I am just ready to be done with this, so I am moving up both of the contests. The winners of the "The "Before I Go" Zune Case Contest…" should be picked tonight if I get a chance. (Son has baseball game tonight) The winner of the Blue Zune 8 is being announced RIGHT NOW...

Drum Roll Please.... Out of more than 350 comments, The winner of the Blue Zune 8 is "drew Henson". I picked comment #92 because I was chatting with a friend named Matt Miller and was talking to him about how I need to visit Whidbey Island next time I am in Seattle. I was stationed there in 1992. Drew, contact me via the contact form asap with mailing address, phone number, etc...

About the Future of GotZune...
I got a great response to my call for someone to take the helm so I can bail. These details will work themselves out behind the scenes and those involved will let you guys know. Hopefully my last post will be tonight when I announce the winners of the cases.

What has GotZune Done?
I am very proud to announce that GotZune jumped out FAST in the 10 months it's been online. We have over 500 RSS Subscribers. We average 1100 unique visitors a day and just over 2k page views a day. I have received over 100 emails from Youtube users thanking me for showing them comparisons between iPods and Zune in a non-biased (if that is possible) way. I feel that GotZune has done a good job covering the Zune World in a different way than a typical blog. It was fun and I am very happy that at least the readers appreciate the efforts put forth here. This appreciation is evident in the emails and comments here when I announced I was stepping aside here. Thanks.

Where does Chris go?
Well, nowhere really. You can still check me out on my personal blog or Mobilitysite. I might throw a rant, rave, or video of Zune stuff on either of those two. I might eventually buy a 120gb Zune of my own and do the 101st Zune 120 unboxing on youtube or something. Thanks for all the support of GotZune over the last 10 months. I hope you enjoy the folks that follow in my footsteps here.

Congrats "Drew Henson" for winning the Zune 8!