Zune Thoughts: Unapologetically Zune

"Let me be clear: I'm a damn proud Zune owner. I do not apologize for having a device that satisfies my needs as it should. If you're an iPod owner, you should be proud too but don't ever expect me to feel bad when I stand next to you. I probably won't be able to hear you speaking anyway, because I'll be too busy listening to the plethora of podcasts I synced the night before."

Marques (TromboneForHire) ain't gonna take it anymore. Fed up with the anti-Zune sentiment he seems to encounter regularly, he has penned what might be called the Zuners' Manifesto, a diatribe against the iPod owning masses. And honestly, it's about time. Most of my friends who poked fun at me for owning a Zune two years ago have since gone out and bought one of their own (no, we haven't used the device-to-device sharing feature.) And even in my classes, my Zune ownership has become something of an in-joke (there are three of us proud Zuners in Philosophy 001 serving as the active resistance against the sea of iPod Classics and Touches... our rallying call "Red Zune!" can be heard just about as often as the discussions about Dualism and Descartes, but I digress.) Honestly, I think most people hate the Zune out of ignorance. It doesn't have quite the same ecosystem as Apple's ubiquitous iPod, but feature-for-feature, it blows the competition out of the water. If Microsoft steps up its efforts and truly gets the word out (no device-less cartoons with irrelvant messages) and delivers a strong competitor to the iPod Touch/iPhone, I think we could be in business. Have you ever felt the scorn of a stranger because of your choice in media player?