Finding Mu

I'm a happy long-time owner of a 2nd-gen 10 Gb iPod. Still works great to this day. I'm not in the market for a new music player (although the new iPod Nanos are very tempting), but I couldn't help but notice the release of Microsoft's new Zune. To be honest, I don't know all that much about the features, but what struck me was the design. I guess I have a good eye for these things.

Back when I bought my iPod, I bought a nice frost white iSkin cover to go with it, for protection. When I started seeing images come out for the new Zune, I was blown away. It's pretty obvious to me that Microsoft has straight-out copied iSkin's design for an iPod cover, right down to the material.

It's tough to see from this picture (easier to see on the iPod I have sitting right next to me now), but check it out. Here's the 2nd gen iPod with a white frost iSkin cover:

And here's a picture of the new Zune, in white:

Check out the uncanny similarities:

- Two concentric circles for control
- Rectangular "border" surrounds the screen
- "Upside-down Omega" pattern extending the rectangle, surrounding the circular controls (tough to see on the iSkin picture, but look closely)
- Four directional touch buttons

Yes, the Zune's screen is bigger and there is a button on each side of the control circle, and the border is black, whereas the iSkin's border is white.

Here's more pictures of the 2nd gen iSkin, from The iStore.

Whether or not the design was intentionally copied, it's a very nice design, and I love the look of the Zune. I just wonder whether the original designer(s) of the iSkin were credited... Hm.