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Monday, September 08, 2008, 12:00 pm
Microsoft to follow Apple's lead with third-gen Zune players
Like Apple, Microsoft is expected to announce this month a new family of Zune media players that will introduce some new features while adopting others that have been available on iPods since this time last year.The plans were outed over the weekend when electronics retailer Frys inadvertently published specifications and a photo of an third-generation, flash-based 8GB Zune model.
The webpage, since removed, listed the players as being in stock, suggesting the Redmond-based software giant may make an attempt to steal some of the thunder surrounding Apple's Let's Rock event by introducing the new Zune offerings on Tuesday or shortly thereafter.
Like Apple's iPods, the 8GB Zune will come pre-loaded with a selection of games. "Play the popular poker game Texas Hold'em or challenge yourself to a game of Hexic, and make sure you play your favorite song from your collection to create your own personal game soundtrack," read the spec sheet leaked by Frys.
Similarly, the player will also let users browse the Zune Marketplace for new songs when connected over Wi-Fi. The capability is documented as one of the features of a new "Device to Cloud" technology that will also let users exchange favorites with friends and purchase songs tagged through Zune's built-in FM radio application.
Another feature described in the spec sheet, called "Channels," will reportedly support "custom programming stations" that deliver personalized playlists to Zune users.
The leak by Frys arrived on the heels of a similar slip by online retailer Amazon.com, which posted to its web store a listing for a $250 120GB hard disk-based Zune that appeared otherwise identical to the outgoing 80GB model.
According to the information published by Frys, the 8GB flash-based Zune will retail for $150 and come in new colors that include blue and silver. A 16GB model is expected to fetch $200.
For its part, Apple is widely expected to announce steep price cuts on a new line of iPods to be introduce Tuesday, likely undercutting those planned by Microsoft for its new Zune line. Much of that speculation was drawn from comments made by Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer during a July 21st conference call with analysts.
"We have some investments in front of us that I can’t discuss with you today where we’re going to be delivering state of the art new products that our competitors just aren’t going to be able to match," he said.
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Previous Comments View All
Are M$ still selling the Zune family at a loss?
- Or have M$ managed to pull their heads out of their A$$ long enough to make a product that is good enough to be sold at a profit?
- to be honest, I think competition for Apple is a good thing, but not if the competition deliberately sold at a loss in order to gain market-share (that means you M$!).
Why innovate when you can copy? I wonder how much Microsoft has lost so far with their ipod knock off?
i would not consider the Zune an iPod knock off at all. the Zune is a fine media player and the subscription service is nice. the software sucks though and since they decided not to make a mac compatible version of it, they will never gain any real market share. a huge mistake on their part.
Thunder-stealing won't work. Every SINGLE article about the "new" Zune will ALSO mention what Apple's releasing. More free PR for Apple, who already has the mindshare.
Meanwhile, much if not most of Apple's press coverage will fail to mention the new Zunes at all. Kind of like how the Vista press coverage didn't touch on Tiger or Leopard much.
The "leader" gets mentioned all the time--frustrating for the smaller alternative I'm sure.
The plans were outed over the weekend when electronics retailer Frys inadvertently published specifications and a photo of an third-generation, flash-based 8GB Zune model.
Third-generation?
I believe there's only been one generation of the flash-based Zunes thus far, so that would make these new ones second-generation.
since they decided not to make a mac compatible version of it, they will never gain any real market share.
Does not compute.
I agree. It is too crappy to be a copy. :O) Seriously. The first generation made users really angry because Microsoft was supposed to offer all kinds of updates. Those never happened until Microsoft released the second generation. There was a whole Microsoft Zune blog full of pissed off users. To Microsoft's credit, it kept the blog up.
The Zune offers nothing that the iPod doesn't except the half baked squirting feature. I say half baked because half the songs will not squirt. Moreover, the iPod has many features the Zune lacks. For instance, the ability to play games, watch video and photos from the iPod on your television, an alarm clock, the ability to use it as a hard drive, and a million third party add ons.
I could care less if the third generation Zune was the greatest player ever. If you screw over your customers once, that is enough to lose my business for a long time.
i would not consider the Zune an iPod knock off at all. the Zune is a fine media player and the subscription service is nice. the software sucks though and since they decided not to make a mac compatible version of it, they will never gain any real market share. a huge mistake on their part.
This may be the best evidence we have as to Apple's pricing for the next iPods.
If the 120GB Zune is $250, and the current 80GB Classic is $250 with the 160Gb Classic at $350, can we expect Apple to drop the 80 in favour for the 120GB model, add the 120GB model to the line up at $250 while dropping the price of the other models by $50, or some other combination?
The current 8GB Nano is $200, it seems to be a given that it will match the 8GB Zune price of $150 and drop the 4GB model altogether for the 16GB model at $200.
The Zune offers nothing that the iPod doesn't except the half baked squirting feature.
The latest Zune firmware is nice. i like the layout better than Apple's iPod line. Now, the HW and syncing, Zune Software (PC) and Marketpalce, I have nothing good to say.
Is it just me or did that flashing "guaranteed winner" blue banner on the right hand side make this article both annoying and difficult to focus on.
Oh and about the artical... M$ figures they will steal thunder from Apple? Only if they want to be in the "in other news" space in the blogs...
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If they actually do announce a new Zune, on the day Apple has a big event, it's going to show just how out of touch and stupid these people really are.
It will take ZERO thunder away from Apple, and in effect do the opposite.
Three weeks after tomorrow's event, people will STILL not know anything about the Zune because IT will get buried by everything Apple is doing.
If they were smart, they'd wait a week or so, and announce the "answer to the new Apple hardware".
This reminds me of the big announcment Sony was doing on new MP3 players featuring mini-drives just like the iPod. They at least had the foresight to wait until AFTER Apple did a show. At the Apple show, Apple announced they were going Flash! Sony was able to cancel their show, and shelve millions of dollars in development as it all became moot.
If they had gone ahead, on the day Apple launched, they would'vr looked super stupid and would not have been able to pull the product as easily.
I know MS is not going to pull the Zune, but going live on the day of Apple's event is not going to make a single dent in Apple's buzz and will get themselves ignore.
Launching a Zune minor upgrade in the middle of this is like going out to paint your picket fence white..... in the middle of a roaring snow-storm.
You may be able to do it..... but nobody is going to notice much less care.