Microsoft+Zune

=Microsoft Zune= = = = =

Published September 14th, 2006

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= = Microsoft has announced that their [|Zune media player] will be available for the holiday season. With Zune, Microsoft chases industry leader Apple and its music player iPOD which has thus far eclipsed all challengers. The new Microsoft product will come in three colours and a built in Wi-Fi which allows the sharing of full length songs to nearby Zune users. The Zune will have a 30GB hard drive as well as a 30inch colour screen.

Scott Erickson, [|Microsoft's] senior director of product management for Zune, said his device is different from the iPod because it offeres an alternative to the typical solitary music-listening experience. Songs and photos can be sent to other Zune users in which they can listen to the shared songs up to 3 times over a 3 day period; if a user likes the songs they have heard the user can flag them down and purchase them on the Zune Marketplace.

Zune will work in conjunction with a subscription music service that offers customers all the music they want for a flat fee. Zune's software can automatically import music, pictures and videos from iTunes and Windows Media Player, however the device does not handle music purchased from iTunes. Industry insiders believe the asking price of the Zune media player ill be in the range of $299-350us. Insiders believe that Zune is still in the process of establishing it's place in the market and therefore it's not a competition for iPod but Microsoft has proved before that they can beat every competition in the long run. Therefore the real battle between the two will start in 2007 when Apple will respond with their new iPods that will probably have all the features of Microsoft's new product

Here is a youtube video about Microsoft Zune media type="youtube" key="27c-SlRm1xI"

Fried, Inga, and Greg Sandoval. Microsoft unwraps Zun for Holiday Season. Online at: [|http://news.com.com/Microsoft unwraps+Zune+for+holiday+season/2100-1041_3-6115716.html?tag=nefd.lede] Conulted On: October 2nd, 2006