Microsoft’s Zune isn’t even in the hands of testers yet but already one analyst is giving it a thumbs
down, mostly due to its possible hardware legacy. A research report from American Technology Research on Wednesday declared the Zune "underwhelming" and could end up "another classic case of overpromising and underdelivering" by Microsoft.
ATR analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a note to investors that Microsoft "had hinted of an all-new design from the ground up, but from our analysis, it appears that the Zune is essentially a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat that has seen limited success."
Earlier this month, Toshiba received FCC approval of a new device, the Toshiba 1089, which is widely believed to be the Zune. The unit sports a 3.0-inch TFT LCD display, FM tuner, a USB 2.0 port, a 30GB hard drive, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. Analyst Gives Zune Thumbs Down