Microsoft's new Zune does little more than reinforce the company's "dorky image," according to a blog-review of the digital media device published by the San Francisco Chronicle. Reviewer C.W. Nevius said that the company has done little more than to reinforce the stodgy image portrayed by Apple in that company's "Get a Mac" campaign.

"Either the Micro-guys are clueless dorks -- Zune is as expensive as iPod, bulkier, and is neither as easy to work as iPod nor as cool. Or, worse yet, the boys up north are malicious bullies," wrote Mr. Nevius. Of course, he also mentions the ability to "use Firefox" with the iPod, something that to our knowledge is completely irrelevant to using an iPod (all iPod loading and management is done through iTunes, be it on Windows or Mac OS X).

That faux pas aside, Mr. Nevius extols the virtues of iPod, while criticizing the heavier, less elegant, and harder-to-use Zune. He closes with the notion that the company must be being hurt by Apple's "Get a Mac" commercials that portray them as a "doofus."

"The response to the Zune," he wrote, "which was supposed to be 'the iPod killer,' only convinces me that I am right. Microsoft is probably being hurt by those TV ads which portray them as a doofus. So they went out and proved it by introducing a much-ballyhooed product that only reinforces the image."

Such reviews have so far been common, but The Mac Observer's John Martellaro wrote recently that far from being a mistake, the Zune's lackluster image is specifically the heart and soul of the company's strategy in this market.