Zune Thoughts: Five Reasons The Zune... Um... Flopped?

"Why did the Zune fail? There was so much hype and buildup. Almost as much as Apple gets when the media pushes their products for free. I find it difficult to believe that, with all this free publicity, a product could flop so miserably... However, there are a couple of items that I don't think people have picked up on yet that I think are key issues that may have significantly helped the product to fail."

Ouch. Isn't it a tad early to declare Zune a complete failure? (I sure would love to see a nice comparison chart of the first generation offerings from each major competitor in the DAP arena to see where Zune falls in.) Back on topic, despite the harsh tone to the article, this blogger does bring up some very valid points. I won't repeat all of them here, but one I found of particular interest, was his point regarding the inaccessibility of in-store displays. Most of the Zune displays I've seen have had the "locked down" Zune (if one was present at all). There was no way of actually picking the Zune up, holding it, playing with it, seeing how good it actually feels. Most shoppers aren't going out specifically looking for a Zune, so they need that chance to touch it and see what it's all about. (Possibly to see that it's not the huge, heavy brick that they've heard about!) Has anyone else have any complaints about terrible in-store displays?