Day 12 Zen Vision Zen:M Test Coffee Chat with Apple Ipod User

Today I met with someone for coffee who owns several iPods. She has the iPod shuffle and the iPod Nano. The Nano is a pretty new purchase and is in a beautiful blue color. She asked me about the Creative Zen and I showed it to her. As she looked at it, she said. "Emmy, it is not very pretty." No, The Zen is not pretty and it is nowhere as small as the Ipod Nano but then it has the video component so you cannot compare the two products. If you are going to do a comparison, you have to compare the Zen:M to the Apple iPod and she does not own that one. She is a runner and needs something lighter.

As she continued to criticize the Zen (most Apple people will do this) I felt like defending the Zen. Why defend the Zen? Because it has great potential and it could be something amazing with a little tweaking. Although I am just testing it, I have a fondness for the zen. It is something different.... I do agree that the outer covering should be changed. It is not classy and if you are going to sell it to women, it needs to look pretty. Either be very pretty or be super easy to use. In either case, I would like it to be prettier. This got me thinking about my radio. When I lived in Luxembourg, I bought a portable radio that I absolutely love. It is a royal blue Henry Kloss PAL Tivoli Audio Radio. (www.tivoliaudio.com) The reception is incredible and no matter how many times I drop it on the tile floor, it still looks wonderful. It has this coating on it that feels a bit like rubber and the places where it dropped on the floor have just become a bit shinier but that does not detract from the looks of the product. The radio also does not show fingerprints nor does it really show any dirt. I really like the coating on the radio and I want the Zen to be coated with the same stuff. Since the zen does not have a removable battery, there is no reason not to have such a coating which is water resistant. I love the blue color and I want a zen with a rubber finish in blue. NOT PINK... just because I am a girl does not mean I want my zen to be pink... unless of course it is Fushia.. then maybe.

Anyways, I spent most of the day talking to people about the Zen and listening to it and in a few minutes, I am off to figure out where they sell the Zen in Munich. I am going to be going to three large stores in town to see if I can find it there, I will report back this evening if we find it and how much it sells for here in the city.

Also on my list of things to do today was download a movie, so I went to the iTunes store to see if I could download a movie but they do not sell movies in Germany yet... they sell the Pixar short movies but I already have my daughter doing ballet for five minutes.. I need something longer.... so I am going to try copying a movie again... maybe I can figure that out this weekend...

BACK FROM SHOPPING EXCURSION

After fighting my way through two major department stores and one electronics store, we did not find the zen:M. We did find Creative products at Saturn and Karstadt but not at Kaufhof. The products available were only the less expensive mp3 players. I did find one MP3 player that is created by DNT that has a similar coating as my radio but it is pink and has graffitti all over it. Obviously geared towards someone a bit younger but at least it had that coating I liked. I also noticed while looking at the media players that the apple ipod has the two tones and has finger prints all over it. Yuck. The Ipod was available in all three stores and in every size even the 80GB. I guess when I write the article and podcast it, I will have to give links to places online that you can buy the Creative Vision Zen:M.

I know that you can buy the Apple iPod at at least four major stores and the Apple store in Munich - all within ten minutes of where I live. This is a little disappointing, it should be easier to find Creatives for people who do not shop online.