Darren Straight's Blog

Microsoft has now officially announced for the first time ever that they are working on a new portable media device called Zune.

In an exclusive first interview with Billboard, Chris Stephenson, Microsoft’s new GM of marketing for MSN Entertainment Business, says the company will later this year launch Zune, the umbrella brand for what he says is “a family of hardware and software products” targeting various digital entertainment services.

The first implementation of this will be the portable music player and digital music service, in what is the company’s strongest effort yet to rein in Apple Computer’s iTunes/iPod juggernaut, currently responsible for about 70% of the digital music market and 75% of the portable digital music player market.

But can Microsoft really get into the portable digital music player market now, or is it too late for them? Also could this cause any lawsuits like the lawsuit of Creative Labs against Apple?

Via: Zune Insider Blog

1. PK says:

   July 22, 2006 at 8:07 am

   Disgusting player, marketing, awful zune sites, espacially zunescene. MS lost already
2. Jack Tool says:

   July 23, 2006 at 1:52 pm

   wifi enabled, probably mobile PC, I see wireless doc, video and music syncing…could be good.
3. zune says:

   July 30, 2006 at 1:32 am

   I love you too PK!!
4. MPG says:

   November 11, 2006 at 7:44 pm

   I have an IPOD Video, I’m interested in seeing what the Zune has to offer, Especially if I can create my own mixes and share them with friends, hopefully the 3 plays per 3 days rule won’t apply to mixes created by us, unless of course we can use it to market our own mixes for a dollar value through paypal or such, otherwise they have no right to require subscription or payment for the content. I wonder if it is Bluetooth enable so we can use all these bluetooth headsets without having to purchase an add-on.

   Peace