TechWeek: Who's Zuning Who, Microsoft?

Sometimes you just have to act your age.

If you're middle-age and out of shape, don't make a fool of yourself by donning rollerblades, a skimpy top and skin-tight shorts. And if you're Microsoft(MSFT), maybe you shouldn't play in the youth-oriented world of digital entertainment until you're sure you really get it.

Microsoft's Zune, the company's purported answer to Apple's(AAPL) wildly popular iPod, is looking like the so-what product of the holiday season. With its formal launch just days away, the digital music player is getting lukewarm reviews at best.

Michael Gartenberg, research director of Jupiter Research, damned the product with faint praise, saying in an interview, "In a world without the iPod, it might be one of the best." But the iPod does exist, of course, and with it Apple owns roughly 75% of the market for digital music players.

What's wrong with the Zune? David Pogue, the influential technology columnist for The New York Times, puts it this way: "What exactly is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication -- in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features -- just to indulge Microsoft's 'we want some o' that' envy."

Although the device itself is reasonably well engineered -- the sound quality and the built-in software are reportedly quite good -- Microsoft has apparently forgotten to think through what the company itself called the product's differentiating feature -- the ability to be part of a social network. In conversations with Microsofties over the last few months, I had the strong impression that the company would use the Zune's wireless capabilities to give young people a reason to switch.