A) you clearly have not seen/tried an ipod touch.  It is the same as the iphone minus the calls (still has wifi, internet, email, chatting, song downloads, great navigation, apps ect ect ect).  It blows the Zune's very limited feature set away.

    Sure if you want to say the Zune is better then the 5 year old ipod classic go right ahead, but that is missing the point.

   B) how in the world is buying a microsoft product an alternative for people who don't like following the herd?  MS is without a doubt THE herd company.  That's like saying I'm an outsider when it comes to fast food so I eat at McDonalds.  The Zune existing at all is PRECISELY microsoft following the ipod herd by making a me too player that is more or less identical (at least identical to the old ipods).  They even made the mini Zune to rip off the ipod nano, Zune touch and Zunephone are probably right around the corner...bastion of innovation MS is.

    And what's wrong with itunes?  It's by far the easiest and best music service/program out now.  What do you prefer?  Windows media player?  please.

I want a Zune! If only they brought them out in the UK, I think they oculd do pretty well over here ... I would happily use it as my default MP3 over my Ipod touch ...

I don't own a zune, as I use my iphone, but I have played with one for a few days. . If I was buying a stand alone MP3 player I would go with the Zune instead of a regular ipod. Better screen, better software(last update is great), and the Zune pass. I would never have thought that when it first came out, as I was a Ipod junkie. And for those counting I have seen a lot of people with Zunes. Then again I live in NYC where you can spot anything

I owned and repaired a few Zunes. The ability to beam songs between devices rocks. However, the brick update really hurt it and the iPhone and iPod Touch are steadily wiping the floor with it. It has tons of features, and is actually way more reliable, but can't touch the iPod.

@ the OP: Nice deflection - glad you found some negative MS news to make you *feel* better in your happy place. Enjoy it now because this place is gonna be a mad house when Sony does its wave of job/division cuts. Mark my words.

So then the 360 must of been really profitable... since there is little in the Entertainment division other then the Zune and 360 right?

I have a Zune and love it. I have also used the iPod Touch. Guess what, they both play f*king music, and guess what, I don't need to spend a ginormous amount of money to play f**king music. So I can touch the screen to change what music is playing(because anything else is irrelevant to me) and then proceed to put it in my pocket. Whoop-dee-f**king doo.

@Kasz216:
Wrong: it's Entertainment and Devices Division, and there is a lot in it, includin Windows Mobile, Embedded, Auto, Office for Mac (why it's not in Business together with Office for Windows is beyond human understanding)

 I have Ipod touch too. Its great... but mine has 8 gigs of storage and I have an 80 gig music collection so you can imagine I dont' use it for music playing much.

Just because Ms is the herd company in software doesn't make them the "Bandwagon" company in every aspect of their business.

Many people argue that people buy Windows OS, use IE because they dont know there is an alternative... Same goes Apple for MP3 players. People buy apple products there because they don't know anything else is out there...and even if they do know othr products exist, the brand and commercial message for Ipods is jsut too much for people to bother trying something else.

And lastly Itunes on a PC is the biggest POS I've ever used. You can never tell whats being syned and the damn thing takes over your machine. No one uses Windows media player for Zune as Zune has its own software. That software works like windows explorer...3 tabs (device, comptuer, store) and you just drag and drop what you want to sync. Easy to figure out and it doesn't try to be the media center that Itunes is going for.

Not only is iTunes a piece of garbage, it is one of the most insecure pieces of software ever made(that and Safari).  If you have iTunes running on your computer, you are at risk.

Agreed