The last couple of weeks have been trying for Zune enthusiasts, and to be perfectly honest I’ve hated every minute of it. It appears to dazzle effect Microsoft used to propel Zune HD to a wanted device by announcing it early has started the cost them a little bit in the PR war, specifically in the areas where users don’t think this Zune will have enough differentiators iPod Touch. However I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing to do, and it’s a good question to ask.
And God Said Let There be Flash
Much has been made about the iPhone/iPod Touch’s lack of flash, what’s more ironic is that the Zune HD may beat Apple to the punch. According to Microsoft the Zune HD as well as every Zune produced this far runs a custom version of the Windows CE mobile operating system, and according to every hands-on video we can of Mobile Internet Explorer Mobile 6 to debut in the fall it will by default include a flash plug-in.
True this is far from a official confirmation but let’s be honest here. Why the Zune Team build on platform made by their company for mobile devices, only to rip out features that the Zune hardware can support? So far we’ve known about the Zune HD for at least three months, and has anyone seen the web browser? Why keep it under wraps if it didn’t have something you didn’t want to keep secret? Easy.
From day one there have been caveats in what Apple’s mobile devices offer. Early on it was ringtones, then came cut, copy, and past, the bottom line is slowly Apple has fixed each problem their users have had with their device, that is except flash inside its browser. Even as late as February Steve Jobs has lamented Adobe Flash’s use on mobile device saying it’s too much of a resources hog and batter drain to be worth implementing. To me and most likely to the Zune team this seems as a perfect opportunity to declare war on Apple and prove the exact opposite, and what better way to do that then to correctly do something that even Apple itself has said can’t be done?
