Playfuls.com has a quite critical article about the Zune the “iPod killer”. “I first started writing this article with a positive attitude concerning Microsoft’s MP3 player. I ended up thinking Zune is a crap. So I changed the title.” There seems to be some annoying things about Zune like the size of the player (2 times bigger than regular iPod’s) and it won’t work with Windows Media Player 11. If you want to buy songs from the Zune Marketplace you cannot pay with your credit card, you have to buy Microsoft points. WTF is Microsoft points? By the way - Europe, Australia and Japan won’t see Zune players before 2008. Is this really a iPod killer?

The overall impression is that Zune looks rather like an Archos media player and it should probably be included in the portable media players’ category, instead of triumphantly call it the iPod killer.

Another annoying thing about the MP3 player is that Microsoft will roll out Zune only in the US for the time being, and they’ve also announced that Europe and other important markets like Australia or Japan won’t see Zune before 2008!! Way to go Microsoft! Ok, I know Apple has taken its time before launching iTunes outside the US, but Microsoft is like… starting from scratch! They did sign those fancy contracts with major record labels in the US, they have secured all those titles, but they are all in the US! What are they going to do when they’ll launch it in Britain or France or China? And don’t tell me they haven’t thought about that before…

And Zune’s won’t work with Window Media Player 11! To be able to use that… thing you’ll of course have to install the Zune software. Oh, I can already foresee the customers’ delight…
But, wait, there’s more! If you want to buy a song from the Zune Marketplace, your credit card won’t do. Of course, Microsoft wants you to have a totally different (and abnormal) experience compared to iTunes, so they’ve prepared a little trick: you cannot pay with your credit card, you have to buy Microsoft points! Just like in Xbox Live. Obviously it has to be $5 or more worth of MS points to be able to use their service…Let’s revise: you first see your usual and comfortable credit card rejected; then you are informed that you have to use MS points, not money; and then, you have to find out what a MS point is and what it’s worth, because although a track costs 99 cents, that equals in MS points 79 points… And you have to buy at minimum the equivalent in MS points of 5 dollars…

Source: Playfuls.com