Over the past few months, news has been bubbling about Microsoft’s “iPod Killer” – Zune and now that it’s actually rolled out, does it really live up to the hype? There are fan sites, brand advocates, and viral campaigns for a product that CNN is calling clunky and poorly designed. One article I read stated that fashionistas wouldn’t be caught dead with something so blasé.

Most of the hype is in the form of one of their tags: “welcome to the social” which is great in theory, but falls flat in practice. All of your friends need to have a Zune, and you are limited to 3 days or 3 plays (whatever comes first) which are then bookmarked in your inbox for a future purchase in the Marketplace. Microsoft is really firm on their stance that all music that is played on the Zune gets paid for. This all really comes down to one thing – Microsoft isn’t really all about the “social,” rather, they’re all about the Payola and putting lots of rules and restrictions and creating a more corporate-friendly product. The real “social” is over at Last.fm – a place that works like the MySpace of music junkies where you can truly track your listening habits, meet other people that like the same music as you, and where you can listen to recommended music.

Will Zune ever really have the same following as the iPod – there are quite a few firm believers that believe this is possible – most of which are from the PC gaming community and are younger skewed Millennials who want everything integrated and love creating their own content. Apple has done an amazing job with making the iPod the Walkman of years past, so I doubt that Microsoft will really make the Zune that kind of product – especially with such restrictions. Sony couldn’t even revamp their Walkman line a couple of years ago as an MP3 player. The only thing that Microsoft does have a leg up on is the integration with their Xbox 360 and eventually with PCs making the device a PDA, gaming system and MP3 player all in one.

All in all – competition is a good thing – and it’s healthy. An iPod loyalist isn’t switching to Zune anytime soon and a new convert to the world of Zune (from the growth of fan sites that are out there, there are many) is singing the praises of potential. In the end, it’s really just a matter of preference.