With the holidays just around the corner, people are in a scramble to find that perfect gift for loved ones. The latest technology has been a repetitive trend to give throughout the holidays, with Apple’s iPod becoming one of the most popular gifts. But the MP3 player is seeing much more competition. In the November issue of Fortune Magazine, the Nintendo Wii, Apple iPhone, Palm Centro and the high definition Sony TV were named the top “techie” items this holiday. Several different brands of MP3 players including, the iPod, Zune, SanDisk, Insignia, Samsung and Sony, are on the market. “The iPod has been outselling the Zune by far,” said Chad Elam, Best Buy employee at the chain’s Bluebonnet Boulevard. location. There have been some debates on Facebook.com over which products are better, focusing on the iPod and the Zune. “Dude, I got a Zune, where’s yours,” and “Chuck Norris chooses Zune over iPod” are popular Facebook groups showing loyalty to the Zune. There are plenty of supporting iPod groups as well. “Zune Sucks” and “I’ll get a Zune, when you pry my iPod from my cold dead hands” are just a few groups to name. The Zune and iPod have similar features. The Zune has a round button designed to appear like the clickwheel on the iPod. They also have a similar shape and appearance. The Zune has a bigger screen, but both products offer the same resolution. The iPod is slimmer and shorter than the Zune, which makes the iPod easy to fit into smaller pockets. The Zune is also slightly cheaper than the iPod. The iPod Touch offers calendars, contacts, notes, a stopwatch and games. The Zune does not provide any of these components. On the other hand, the Zune accommodates the user with FM radio, the ability to personalize the screen, share files and sync wirelessly with PCs. “I bought the Zune because it could play the radio as well as hold many songs, play movies and hold pictures,” said Stephanie Fuenzalida, University alumna. “I did buy the iPod but returned it upon hearing about the Zune.” When the Zune first came out in 2006, Fortune Magazine said the main innovation was the WiFi-based sharing of songs and digital photos wirelessly between nearby Zunes. Because not all artists and labels agree to share under Zune’s sharing guidelines, the user has to know which songs are able to be shared. This information can be found online on the Zune Marketplace. There are advantages and disadvantages to both devices. “The iPod is still better. It’s been out longer, and I trust the iPod,” said Catherine Chatelain, animal science pre-vet freshman. Microsoft released the first Zune in the United States in November 2006 after Apple launched the first iPod in October 2001. Apple released the newest version of the iPod -the iPod Touch – this past September. The Zune has sold 1.2 million units in the United States to date. More than 119 million iPods had been sold worldwide as of October. “I bought the Zune because I am a Microsoft junkie, and when I heard about it, I decided to wait for it to come out so I could be one of the first people to have one,” said Kyle Camp, business management sophomore. Camp said the Zune has been advertised more than when it first came out. “I feel like people know about it more,” Camp said.
—-Contact Jessica Greenfield at [email protected]