Apple's iPod has, through all its different makes and models, had a stranglehold on the portable mp3 player marketplace almost since the day it was introduced in 2001. In fact, the iPod, by even the most basic estimates, has anywhere between 70-85 percent marketshare, in spite of last year's launch of Microsoft's Zune, which was designed, in price and capacity and features, to compete head-to-head with Apple's juggernaut.

So... how do the two players stack up against each other?

I decided to compare two standard models, the 30 GB video Apple iPod, and the 30 GB Zune Media Player from Microsoft. The first points of comparison ended up being fairly moot, since both have identical hard drives, and (at least at Amazon.com), both sell within a few dollars of each other. So far, neither music player has any advantage.

The obvious next point of comparison (and perhaps it should have been first), is sound. These are both music players first (along with - of course - video), and so sound quality should be paramount. Right? Well, not so much. If either player actually sounded bad, then I'd mention it, but to my ears, both the Microsoft Zune and the Apple iPod sound fine. Both are, of course, dependent on the headphones used, as well as the quality of th music file listened to. From my own experience, I know that I really like the way the iPod is set, as far as how the sound is equalized, and in my (shorter) experience with the Microsoft Zune, I would have to say that the aural experience for me was pretty much the same. So, again... no advantage to either player.