Introducing the Microsoft Zune

For the last several years, if you wanted a portable audio player, the one to get was the iPod. Now Apple has some serious competition in the form of the Zune - Microsoft's first entry into the portable MP3 player market.

The Microsoft Zune is, like the iPod, a hard disk-based portable audio player. Priced at $249.99, the Zune has 30GB of storage (enough to hold 7,500 or so songs), and comes in three colors - white, black, and brown.

The Zune case has a subtle rubberized texture (it doesn't smudge or hold fingerprints), with a kind of two-color effect around the edges.

It weighs just 5.6 ounces, and has a fairly large 3" diagonal screen that takes up most of the front of the player. Its physical dimensions are just a tad larger than that of the iPod, at 4.4" x 2.4" x 0.6" thick.

Battery life is rated at 14 hours.

How Zune Works

Sharing Music with the Zune

The Zune Marketplace

Zune vs. iPod: Comparing the Players

Michael Miller is a writer and commentator on technology and digital lifestyle topics.