Freddy vs Jason, King Kong vs Godzilla, The Donald vs Rosie. Some of the most recognizable names in history have also sparked some of the greatest rivalries of all time. The engineers at Apple and Microsoft are no different, going toe-to-toe many times over the past few decades. Apple creating their iPod line and Microsoft creating the Zune line. Now the two similar foes do battle in our arena; The Apple iPod touch 32GB vs. The Microsoft Zune HD 32GB.

We’re going to break this down over 4 rounds.

-Features/Screen
-Applications
-User Interface
-Overall

Applications

Round 2: Applications

The iPod touch has over 100,000 applications available for download, they vary in price from free to almost 900$. So far all apps for the Microsoft Zune HD have been free and there’s only a fraction of the total available in the Application store. The Apple iPod touch clearly wins this round, hands down.

Round 3: User Interface

When using both devices, ease of use is incredibly important. The graphical UI on both players is solid, although thumbing through the menu of the Microsoft Zune HD seemed to have just the slightest bit of lag. The Apple iPod touch’s menu is snappy and even when loading heavier apps doesn’t bow down under pressure. The Apple iPod touch barely squeaks out a win in this category.

Round 4: Overall

Both players are well made, well designed, and easy to use. They both have bright futures in the portable media player market. Only one can win though and this contest was incredibly close. While the Zune HD has a superior screen and lots of potential it was marginally beaten out by the iPod touch. Its large amount of apps and content makes it the clear winner. This battle may be over, but the war between portable Microsoft and Apple devices still rages on.