Andy riffing on any Microsoft product is like reading a Howard Dean op/ed piece about the RNC.

But that's not to say that he's completely off base when it comes to the Zune. From other tech review, it's pretty clear that the device has some real "user friendly" issues. One thing that Andy doesn't mention is the amount of PC horsepower needed on the sync computer, typically a XP/Win2K PC running 1.5GHz or better, while iTunes works on lesser Mac and Windows PC platforms.

Consumers will decide the marketplace winner, but there are too many niggly little quirks with the Zune to make it a clear choice over the venerable iPod icon.