The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years – and vast sums of money – trying to create a true competitor to Apple’s iPod, without ever coming close to actually pulling it off. The Zune was simply too little, too late.

You know what’s surprising about the Zune, though? Microsoft made a lot of the right bets with the Zune. The company saw – well ahead of most of the rest of the tech industry – that adding social features could make its product stickier. It understood that these pocketable devices might eventually be useful for much more than just music. And it had a bunch of interface design ideas that …

Read the full story at The Verge.