There’s lot of tech buzz today about the new Microsoft Zunes. They might not yet be available in Europe (any word on that?) but the new top-end 80GB model with its enormous screen is certainly worth a look. However the 4 and 8 GB mini models (pictured) don’t seem to have much going for them; it looks far too similar to the old iPod Nano, which has just been updated to a more compact model.

Perhaps that’s where Microsoft are going wrong. Everything they do seems to falter a little in comparison with the iPod. Even their top end model looks a bit too much like it’s trying to mimic the fifth-generation iPod, just a couple of weeks after Apple launch the scrollwheel-less iPod Touch and further enter the touchscreen paradigm (which we’ll be seeing a lot of over the next couple of years, trust us).

Unlike their enormously successful Xbox range, which took on the competition and innovated enough to beat them, with the Zune Microsoft are at the moment content with meekly following. Digital music products are as much about style as performance (as the iPod has proved) and Microsoft need to buck up a little in how they style their products in order to set themselves

Under the hood, there are some nice features on the new Zunes (wireless synchronisation is very handy given the ubiquity of Wi-Fi) and some useless ones (FM radio – who is going to listen to someone else’s songs when you have your own?). The most interesting feature is the addition of social networking features on Zune Marketplace, allowing you to show what you’re listening on a profile and find out what your friends are. Existing successful sites like Last.fm and iLike have shown what a great idea it is, but getting these to work is always a chicken-and-egg problem: You need a good-sized userbase for it to be useful, but people will only join it if it is useful. Can Microsoft get the core user base they need in what is already a crowded market? Let us know what you think.