WU'S SEEN THE FUTURE AND IT'S OK-ISH

Microsoft have snuck out some prototype Zune players for people to look at, and market analyst Shaw Wu isn't impressed. He even reckons that it's not even a new player, just an old one with a new box:

"Microsoft had hinted of an all-new design from the ground up, but from our analysis, it appears that the Zune is essentially a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat that has seen limited success."

There is something worth noting here - Wu is suggesting Zune will be a failure to rank alongside the XBox. Yes, the XBox, which might look like a success but has yet to return any profit to Microsoft, nor does it look likely to. But from Microsoft's point of view, it has done the job of weakening - perhaps even destroying - Sony's Playstation (and, with it, much of Sony's consumer electronics business's comfort zone.) There are piles of cash the size of houses at Microsoft, and they might not be that bothered about making a loss on the deal if they can start to claw back even a tiny bit of ground from Apple.

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