Zune apocalypse strikes at midnight
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By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 12/31/2008 2:37:00 PM
Sometime around midnight Pacific Time last night, 30GB Zune players around the world began freezing up for reasons unknown.Zune discussion boards quickly filled with thousands of comments from new and unwilling Microsoft brick owners. According to multiple news reports, the problem so far appears to be limited to the 30GB models, an early iteration of the Zune that was actually designed and built for Microsoft by Toshiba. Zune shipped about a million of the units before introducing new models.
Users reported the units suddenly rebooting and then freezing on the start page. Those turning on their Zunes for the first time this morning got no further than the start page.
Microsoft posted a statement on its Zune support site saying it is "aware" of the problem and "working to correct it."
The proximity of the meltdown to New Year's Eve led people to dub the problem the Z2K9 bug, a play on the much-feared but ultimately mile Y2K bug.
I was unclear, however, whether the problem was a bug unwittingly built into the devices, a virus set to go off at the start of 2009 (It was already January 1 in some parts of the world) or something else.
Whatever the cause, however, the episode is a definite set back to Microsoft in its efforts to make headway against Apple's iPod.
