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.
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 $200.
For its part, Apple is widely expected to announce steep price cuts on a new line of iPods to be introduce Tuesday, likely undercutting those planned by Microsoft for its new Zune line. Much of that speculation was drawn from comments made by Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer during a July 21st conference call with analysts.
"We have some investments in front of us that I can?t discuss with you today where we?re going to be delivering state of the art new products that our competitors just aren?t going to be able to match," he said.
Comments
It will take ZERO thunder away from Apple, and in effect do the opposite.
Three weeks after tomorrow's event, people will STILL not know anything about the Zune because IT will get buried by everything Apple is doing.
If they were smart, they'd wait a week or so, and announce the "answer to the new Apple hardware".
This reminds me of the big announcment Sony was doing on new MP3 players featuring mini-drives just like the iPod. They at least had the foresight to wait until AFTER Apple did a show. At the Apple show, Apple announced they were going Flash! Sony was able to cancel their show, and shelve millions of dollars in development as it all became moot.
If they had gone ahead, on the day Apple launched, they would'vr looked super stupid and would not have been able to pull the product as easily.
I know MS is not going to pull the Zune, but going live on the day of Apple's event is not going to make a single dent in Apple's buzz and will get themselves ignore.
Launching a Zune minor upgrade in the middle of this is like going out to paint your picket fence white..... in the middle of a roaring snow-storm.
You may be able to do it..... but nobody is going to notice much less care.
- Or have M$ 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$!).
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?
since they decided not to make a mac compatible version of it, they will never gain any real market share.
Does not compute.
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.
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.
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...
Does not compute.
While we all know that Mac computers still comprise a clear minority of computers sold these days, The fact that the Zune software being Windows only is significant,
Many of the PCs sold these days that help them win the market share competition are sold to business and older shoppers. The younger set and the university students are currently switching to the Mac in very significant numbers. Now, who buys MP3 players? Kids and families or companies?
Of course you can run Windows on a Mac, but many people don't.
And of course, internationally the Mac platform is less significant.
Nevertheless, if the OSX market continues to grow as it does, it will add even more pressure to the Windows only Zune (over and above the pressure from the popularity and acceptance of the iPod and iPhone).
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$!).
I don't think they break out the margins of each product, but the business area that includes Zune, XBox360, and similar endeavors is now, from what I understand, above break-even and is making a tiny profit. They managed to bribe a LOT of people into buying the earlier generations of XBox below-cost and subsidized by their Windows and Office monopolies, but at this point I think it's self-sustaining. If Microsoft requires them to stay that way, the future XBoxen will have to compete just like all the other consoles and you'll get what you pay for, so it probably won't sell as well...
Wow, I'm amazed that they still make Zunes. Last June it was stated that MS only sold 2 million of them. Must have been all MS employees and their families and friends.
The zune is actually doing really well right now as far as sales go. The platorm is very nice. I do believe the iPod platform was innovative and nice when it first came out but the fact that it's been the same for the last 6 years is retarded. I have iPhone 3g iPod touch 60 gb iPod first gen zune and zune mini. I do like iTunes better than the zune software but iTunes eats up way too much memory physical and flash. But the zune has a way better looking interface and does a lot more than the iPod. The iPod touch is the only Competiter to zune as far as quality but the iPods still do very much outsell the zune. This probably won't change but zune will for a long time be a competiter in the market.
[note]: also it is the 3rd generation zune plus mini is 4. The reason they will be releasing another one is because they are the second largest mp3 player in the market. Talk all the shit you want but out of about 1,500 different companies it's number 2. They are doing something right.
But the zune has a way better looking interface..
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.
This probably won't change but zune will for a long time be a competiter in the market.
I agree. The Zune may not be everything that the iPod is, but it will be a long time competitor.
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.
If a tree falls in the forest, and there's nobody to hear it, does it make a sound?
The zune is actually doing really well right now as far as sales go. The platorm is very nice. I do believe the iPod platform was innovative and nice when it first came out but the fact that it's been the same for the last 6 years is retarded. I have iPhone 3g iPod touch 60 gb iPod first gen zune and zune mini. I do like iTunes better than the zune software but iTunes eats up way too much memory physical and flash. But the zune has a way better looking interface and does a lot more than the iPod. The iPod touch is the only Competiter to zune as far as quality but the iPods still do very much outsell the zune. This probably won't change but zune will for a long time be a competiter in the market.
[note]: also it is the 3rd generation zune plus mini is 4. The reason they will be releasing another one is because they are the second largest mp3 player in the market. Talk all the shit you want but out of about 1,500 different companies it's number 2. They are doing something right.
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/05...ive-drops-2%25
According to most, Sandisk is #2 at 11%, MS is #3 at 4% and Creative is #4 at 2%
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/05...ive-drops-2%25
According to most, Sandisk is #2 at 11%, MS is #3 at 4% and Creative is #4 at 2%
SanDIsk kicks but on unit sales because they do so many cheap players, while I think Creative is all large PMPs. SanDisk will jump up a lot for the holiday quarter. They offer huge discounts which severely hurt their profits.