UNINNOVATE / Engineering At Its Finest

The Zune is Microsoft’s new portable media player meant to compete with Apple’s dominant iPod. In a new review by Andy Ihnatko, the Chicago Sun-Times lambasts the Zune as a clear-cut case of uninnovation:

You’ll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry’s Bizarro World, where users aren’t allowed to do anything that isn’t in the industry’s direct interests.

Take the Zune’s one unique and potentially ginchy feature: Wi-Fi. You see this printed on the box and you immediately think “Cool. So I can sync files from my desktop library without having to plug in a USB cable, right? Maybe even download new content directly to the device from the Internet?”

Typical, selfish user: How does your convenience help make money for Universal? No wonder Doug despises you.

No, the Zune’s sole wireless feature is “squirting” — I know, I know, it’s Microsoft’s term, not mine — music and pictures to any other Zune device within direct Wi-Fi range. Even if the track is inherently free (like a podcast) the Zune wraps it in a DRM scheme that causes the track to self-destruct after three days or three plays, whichever comes first.

Chicago Sun-Times: Avoid the loony Zune

While we have previously reported on the Zune and uninnovation on this blog, it’s unusual to see such forthright reporting in the mainstream media. The Sun-Times review goes on to call the Zune “a complete, humiliating failure” and ends the review with “Result: The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance.”

This is even more bad news for the Zune, which has been the target of much critism lately.  From software instability, to missing Windows Vista compaitbility, to slow sales, to record company kickbacks, there hasn’t been much good Zune-related news to go around.