The Zune was never the iPod killer. Even now it is a faint pretender.  So can the Microsoft Courier out-do iPad? If you watch this video it seems a more compelling proposition than the "iPad is just a big iPhone" approach by Apple.

But there are some questions still.  

- Can the product actually LOOK and FEEL cool?  Not just black/chrome but "Apple-cool".  Remember the first Zunes were shit-brown. 

- Is the price compelling enough? SteveB was quoted as 

"You can't be high-priced," Ballmer told a group of analysts at Microsoft's annual Financial Analyst Meeting back in June 2009. "That doesn't get us to the high volume that we aspire to."

- How are Microsoft going to get apps available to run on it?Remember the iPad has all those iPhone apps ready to go.  The initial views is the device will run WinMobile7 and not Win7. 

Finally, when will it be available?