The new, touchscreen Zune—complete with an OLED display, support for HD video playback, and 3D gaming—went on sale barely five months ago, yet Microsoft has already begin whittling down its price tag.
Several blogs have noticed that the Zune HD pricing at Amazon and New Egg had dropped by a good $30 to $40, while the official Microsoft Store is now offering a $20 price cut for the 32GB Zune HD (now $269, was $289), with the once-$229 16GB Zune HD now listed for $199.
That makes the Zune HD an even better bargain over the 32GB iPod Touch, which currently sells for $299, while the Microsoft's new $199 price for the 16GB Zune HD is the same amount that Apple charges for the 8GB iPod Touch.
Of course, the question of whether the Zune HD is in fact now a better deal than the iPod Touch all depends on how you feel about the new Zune in general.
Yes, the Nvidia Tegra-powered Zune HD has a vivid, 3.3-inch OLED display (which delivers great contrast since it doesn't require backlighting as standard LCD screens do), and it can play 720p HD video over an HDMI-enabled dock to an external HDTV, a eye-popping trick that's missing from the iPod Touch. The Zune HD also boasts HD Radio support, and it's about an ounce and a half lighter than the 4.05-ounce touchscreen iPod. Not bad, not bad at all.
That said, the iPod Touch has a much more robust collection of TV shows and movies available for purchase or rent, its gorgeous touch interface is tough to beat, and let's not forget about the 100,000 apps available in the App Store, versus a mere handful for the Zune HD.
In any case, Microsoft's price drop for the Zune HD is something of an eyebrow-raiser coming as soon as it does after the player's recent launch. One way of looking at it is that Microsoft is hoping goose sales ... and let's face it, the Zune HD may be one slick piece of hardware, but hasn't exactly set the world on fire. (I've yet to see one in the wild here in New York, a city where people aren't exactly shy about showing off their new gadgets.)
Another possibility to consider: Maybe Microsoft has a new Zune product up its sleeves, such as the oft-rumored "Zune Phone" that may or may not arrive at this month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Personally, I doubt it; if anything, we might see a new, Tegra-powered Windows Mobile 7 phone with a Zune app included, but that's all I'd be willing to bet. But hey, anything's possible, right?
