Microsoft's "iPod Amnesty Bin" Gaffe

Misplaced hubris is never pretty. A few days ago Rex Sorgatz was visiting "Zune HQ," as he describes it, and he snapped the picture you see here (the full-sized pic is on his Flickr page): an "iPod Amnesty Bin," where -- to all appearances -- people can chuck their iPods, because presumably they've seen the brown Zune light.

It would be worth a chuckle if it weren't for the minor detail that Microsoft's "iPod killer" is in fact being utterly creamed by Apple's player. Sure, Microsoft's being saying since before the Zune launch that their initial goals were modest -- their "million Zunes by June" target makes for less than a tenth the number of iPods sold in a quarter -- but that modesty isn't reflected in their hype, or in cute stunts like these.

Memo to Microsoft: There's an art to trash talk, and part of that art is having the goods to back it up. Maybe your next generation of players will, in fact, bring extra helpings of awesome to the table. But until then, "bite me" signs are embarassingly premature. And maybe a little immature as well.