Zune HD Sounds Like a Winner – If it Had Been Announced in August 2007

Wow! CNET’s Donald Bell was really impressed by the unreleased Zune HD…

Zune HD hands-on, impressions, tears of joy

His reasons?

- Physical design/feel is good
- Good 3.3-inch OLED display
- Good 720p HD video output (screen output is 480×272)
- Rich artist information provided during playback
- Excellent web browser

Sounds pretty good, right? So, here’s the thing. If this was announced and available in August 2007 (a month before the iPod touch was announced), it would have been a must-buy item. But, this is August 2009. And, while the current 2nd generation iPod touch doesn’t have some of the Zune HD’s spiffy features like HD output and rich artist information, it does have tens of thousands of cool apps and games that aren’t available for the Zune HD. And, oh yes, there’s one more thing… September is just around the corner. And, a lot of us expect Apple to make its annual iPod refresh announcements next month. What if Apple announces a 3rd generation iPod touch with HD video output and throws in an auto-focus still/video camera? And, if the new iPod touch has a built-in microphone to let you easily use Skype, fring, or Truphone, game over.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.