Apple Special Annoncement on the 5th Sept....

[Sparky]

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The previous Zune was shipping at a $5 dollar loss I believe, now Apple have upped the spec and kept the pricing the same, I think it will be hard for the Zune II to make money either.

Will be interesting to find out

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It will, but remember Zune had stuff like wifi that Apple are only getting round to now, from launch. Microsoft said that production costs will fall dramatically with the new unit to due a new production method.

Having seen both, I think Microsoft have done very well with the Zune player, but badge status drives a lot of people to the Ipod sadly. Not saying that of anyone from here as you're more technically based if you're reading this in the first place.

It's a good device, but like some of Microsoft's shocking efforts in the past, it shows what good marketing can do to a good, but not excellent product.

An independent research team found that 45% of Ipod owners in the states would switch to Zune if they could take their music collection with them.

[Ritey]

I guess that backs up Snails remarks about the whole package Apple seem to have sown up so well

[Gabster]

The i-Phone will be great come about the 4th generation.

The race is on at the moment to develop the portable device which combines MP3, Sat Nav, Phone, e-mail, internet, Wi Fi, camera and video. You have devices now like the Nokia N 95 which does some of these good but not great and Apple have spotted this merger of technologies and the i-Phone is the first step in this.

The big thing that stops this device becoming reality is the size of the screen on a device which fits in your hand and the i-Phone gets round this by using atouch screen like a PDA. I watched an hour interview recently with Gates and Jobs together and they both admitted that they have hardware developers at Apple and Microsoft working on screens that can be folded or rolled into a device so you can have a handheld device with a screen that pulls out the side of the device so you can look at things like excel spreadhseets on the go or watch decent size movies. This they reckon is at least five years away though and will be the key to a truely mobile and versatile device, if Apple dont win this race this is when you may see the demise of the i-Pod.

I am a new concert to OSX and Apple, what I like with Apple products is they develop the hardware and software to work together. I have a Vaio which is 18 months old and a MBP and I use the MBP constantly, I hardly use the Vaio, the MBP hasent crashed on me and is faster and easier to use so I use it, it does what it says in the tin and works great for what I want.