According to Engadget, Microsoft and United Airlines are going to be extending their partnership which saw Zune branded content appear on the in-flight entertainment systems this past year, by providing Zune HD portable devices on long-haul flights to Hong Kong and Australia.

When I saw the story about iPads being used as IFE devices this spring, and now this Zune announcement, I thought it was pretty silly, and something I would never use, however after now flying United trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific in the past 12 months, and being subjected to no in-seat IFE or five channels of rotating content, I now think this is a very good idea.

In the past, I have been spoiled by Air Canada and their seat-back TV on every flight they operate, but when you think of the costs involved in outfitting an entire fleet of planes with Millions of dollars in equipment, and then take in to consideration the added weight and believe it or not, the huge costs related to the added weight, this idea of portable devices really makes sense.

Not to mention, when the seat-back TV is out of order, the flight attendants have to play the role of tech support, and reboot the systems on the entire plane. In the portable device situation, they could just hand you another device, and when the system is on the fritz it will only effect on passenger, and won't take weeks to fix!

In fact, I watch content on my iPad when travelling, more than I watch the IFE, even if it is of the large in-seat variety, with hundreds of hours of content. So maybe these portable devices aren't the worst idea after-all! And according to the Engadget story, the Zune's will have exclusive content that has yet to be released on DVD, so you won't necessarily be subjected to 20 episodes of 2 1/2 Men!

Add in Wi-fi in-flight, and an Ipad at every seat would be an amazing IFE experience.

• Darren Mak's blog