Microsoft are now heading towards the path of portable entertainment since it's main rival Apple has dominated this key market for several years with the popular iPod.
To celebrate this key milestone for its 'Connected Entertainment' vision, the company has unveiled details on the Zune. This exciting new product is based on the principles of sharing, discovery and community. It's designed to create a new way for consumers to connect and share entertainment experiences (such as photos, music and video) with friends and other devices.
“The digital music entertainment revolution is just beginning,” said J. Allard, vice president, design and development, at Microsoft, who is leading the charge for building the family of Zune products. “With Zune, we are not simply delivering a portable device, we are introducing a new platform that helps bring artists closer to their audiences and helps people find new music and develop new social connections.”
This all sounds exciting and what Microsoft are offering to consumers in America are: a 30GB digital media player and access to Zune Marketplace music service (similar to Apple's iTunes Online Store).
This marketplace is an online community that will enable music fans to discover new artists or bands. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colours: black, brown and white.
But can it beat the iPod? I have to admit the Zune player looks good especially the ability to play different types of codec like H.264, MP3, AAC and WMA. The ability to share files wirelessly is a great feature though I am a bit worried about passing on 'unprotected' files from one device to another. As for the cost, sadly Microsoft hasn't reveal this but I suspect it will be in the same price range as the fifth generation iPod (with video).
For more information on Zune, please see the official site
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walking leaf says:
An interesting article on the Zune player as reported by BBC News. Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5348674.stm
I noticed that when sharing music files between other Zunes, that it can only play three times before it delete itself…
And as for the big screen, it looks nice to watch movies. But there aren’t any available on Zune Marketplace.
Sep 14, 2006, 6:32 am