The Zune is dead and it hasn't even been launched. David Pouge has a very good review of the Zune but he misses the big problem with it.

As media players go, Zune is behind the iPod by any way measurable except one. Pouge explains what makes Zune so special.

The big, whomping Zune news, though, is wireless sharing. The Zune has a built-in Wi-Fi antenna. (Turning it on costs you one hour of battery life.)

During the playback of any photo or song, you can view a list of Zunes within 30 feet. Sending a song takes about 15 seconds, a photo 2 seconds; you can't send videos at all.
Your lucky recipient can accept or decline your offering -- and, if you have really terrible taste, can block your Zune permanently.

It all works well enough, but it's just so weird that Zunes can connect only to each other. Who'd build a Wi-Fi device that can't connect to a wireless network -- to sync with your PC, for example? Nor to an Internet hot spot, to download music directly?

Microsoft also faces what's known as the Dilemma of the First Guy With a Telephone: Who you gonna call? The Zune will have to rack up some truly amazing sales before it's easy to find sharing partners.

Microsoft is leaving nothing to chance here. The Zune will be available in 30,000 stores nationwide -- versus 10,000 for the iPod, Microsoft says. Zune commercials will run several times during each episode of popular TV shows, bearing the slogan "Welcome to the social." (Either there's a noun missing there, or they're using "social" as a noun, as in "ice cream social.")

The bigger problem, though, is the draconian copy protection on beamed music (though not photos). You can play a transmitted song only three times, all within three days. After that, it expires. You're left with only a text tag that shows up on your PC so that -- how convenient! -- you can buy the song from Microsoft's store.

This copy protection is as strict as a 19th-century schoolmarm. Just playing half the song (or one minute, whichever comes first) counts as one "play." You can never resend a song to the same friend. A beamed song can't be passed along to a third person, either.

What's really nuts is that the restrictions even stomp on your own musical creations. Microsoft's literature suggests that if you have a struggling rock band, you could "put your demo recordings on your Zune" and "when you're out in public, you can send the songs to your friends." What it doesn't say: "And then three days later, just when buzz about your band is beginning to build, your songs disappear from everyone's Zunes, making you look like an idiot."

For starters, a large hunk of the market -those above 17 years old- simply don't care to "Join the Social." But is let me be the first to coin the phrase for what will really kill Zune sales.

Zune Spam.

You can see Wired and CNET the headlines now... In crowded subway stations or shopping districts, people will buy Zunes just to transmit spam. Walk past a small shop and a photo and a recorded message land in your Zune. -- Then the obvious starts to happen... Perverts get their hands on it and start beaming naked pictures to kids with Zunes. It's wireless so they will get away without a trace.

And it's not being too bold to predict that just about the time all this appears, the first Zune virus will hit. Wirelessly.

Learning nothing from the Outlook debacles, Microsoft has invented the perfect spam delivery device that will probably be able to send viruses too at no extra charge.

Wireless is a good idea and one Apple will probably implement but Microsoft went about it all wrong. Today the only reason it is in the Zune is to boost sales from the Zune music store, it really does nothing for the end user.

And the idea of a few million open wireless devices is just too big a target for many to pass up.