Somewhere between Virginia and New York, I put on a song and absentmindedly plopped the Zune down in my cupholder, where a small McDonald’s Diet Coke had leaked most of its contents hours before. My Zune met its fate during the very same road trip that restored my confidence in the underdog MP3 player. Microsoft officially discontinued the Zune in 2012, two years after the release of the lackluster Zune HD 64. You can’t.Īdmittedly, the Zune died out for legitimate reasons: It didn’t have iTunes, the accompanying Marketplace was a mess, nobody made Zune accessories, and it just couldn’t compete with an innovative company like Apple. Zune didn’t have Bono, it was never a major plot point on an episode of The Office, and I’d like to challenge you to remember even one Zune commercial. They saw my Zune for what it was: A marvel of modern technology. They were guys of a different stock - far different from the trendier college friends who ridiculed my music player.
I was the one driving when they started passing it around, marveling at the HD quality videos and gorgeous album art that would explode on the screen as songs played. On a road trip from Connecticut to California with my brother and best friend, I busted out my Zune and regaled the car with what I’m sure was Reel Big Fish-adjacent. I have so many fond memories of my Zune, including the cherished one that led to its downfall.
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It was as if Apple had caused the world to forget how to press buttons this was the gray wheel generation. “How do you use this? It’s so big! How do you put music on it? Wanna hold my Nano?” My Zune was always too large, too confusing, and too different from what people were used to. They’d put on a big production, feigning frustration at the alien buttons. “Oh wow, it’s so bulky,” they’d say, unknowingly half a decade away from pining over the gargantuan iPhones of the 2010s that dwarfed the hands of grown adults.
“I have so many fond memories of my Zune, including the cherished one that led to its downfall.” No box, no headphones, no instruction manual, no problem. I found the 120 GB device as beautiful as it was technologically confounding: Wireless syncing, built-in FM radio, video support, and good enough music quality for a guy who still listened to a lot of ska. A gorgeous 3.2-inch glass LCD display lit up with an image refreshingly dissimilar to Bono’s face. I picked one up and fiddled around with its substantially smaller click wheel/pad hybrid. That’s when something caught my eye from another part of the store: A display of Microsoft Zunes just itching to be touched. My thumb traced circles around its silky-smooth click wheel. A complicated mix of envy, disgust, and shame coasted through my brain as I muttered complaints under my breath. I was meandering through Best Buy when I came upon the Apple section of the store.
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