In case you have been living under a rock, I will tell you the new Zune 4, 8 and 80 will be released tomorrow! Here is the official Microsoft Press Release.
Tomorrow, consumers ready for a richer, more connected and more personal entertainment experience will have the first opportunity to get their hands on sleek new Zune players, redesigned Zune software, and new online services including the Zune Marketplace and Zune Social, an online music community. The players — along with dozens of accessories — will be available at retailers across the United States, while the new Zune software will be available for free download at http://www.zune.net.
or the first time, consumers also will have the option to customize their Zune player with laser-engraved designs and personal text through a new Web store called Zune Originals. Customers will be able to purchase a Zune player directly from Microsoft at http://www.zuneoriginals.net and choose from a collection of laser-engraved artwork designed exclusively for Zune by 18 internationally recognized artists.
“We’re bringing the entire category to the next level by empowering consumers to play a role in redefining the digital music experience,†said J Allard, corporate vice president for Zune. “Zune brings music discovery and acquisition into one simple, end-to-end solution, and the addition of unique customization options puts the originality back into portable entertainment.â€
Zune Originals Gives Consumers a New Canvas
Consumers no longer need to settle for the same portable media player as everybody else. The new Zune Originals online store will let people make a unique statement by customizing their Zune with laser-engraved art or personal text. Zune worked with 18 accomplished artists from all over the world to create a collection of 27 different designs, called the Artist Series, which will be available exclusively through Zune Originals. In addition to the Artist Series, a separate Tattoo Series will feature 20 graphics that consumers can have laser-engraved on their Zune with up to three lines of text. Alternatively, people can choose to engrave up to five lines of text in place of a design. On the Zune Originals Web site, customers can choose their Zune (Zune 80GB, Zune 8GB or Zune 4GB), pick a color and then select a design and their desired text.
The Zune Originals Artist Series will launch with designs from artists Colletivo Studios, Catalina Estrada, Laurent Fetis, Sam Flores, Klaus Haapaniemi, Pierre Marie, Kenzo Minami, Parskid, Mike Perry, Phunk Studios, Chisato Shinya, Skwak, Iosefatu Sua, Tado, Nobumasa Takahashi, Ramiro Torres, Darvin Vida and Steve Wilson.
“I’m always interested in the way art can merge with technology to create a new dialogue,†Estrada said. “My work has been shown in different venues all over the world, but Zune represents a brand-new canvas for me to display my ideas.â€
Zune Entertainment Experience Expands
Together with the original Zune 30GB, the new models and customization options make it easier for consumers to find the size, color, design and price that best suits them. Three new Zune models will be on store shelves tomorrow: the black Zune 80GB, which has a bright 3.2-inch screen and comes with premium in-ear noise-isolating headphones (ERP $249.99), and the slim, ultra-portable Zune 4GB (ERP $149.99) and the Zune 8GB (ERP $199.99), both available in pink, green, black and red. The new Zune models also feature the new Zune Pad, a touch-sensitive navigation button that lets people fly through menus or lists with the flick of their thumb, or click to easily change songs or adjust the volume. Every Zune player includes wireless sync and wireless sharing, a built-in FM tuner, and a bright color screen to display music, pictures, videos and podcasts. Existing Zune owners will receive all new software features via a free and easy upgrade, available Nov 13.
The updated design of the new Zune players is complemented by smart new software and a dramatic new look and feel for Zune Marketplace. The new Zune software takes digital music to a new level of simplicity, while connecting consumers to a richer, more interactive entertainment experience through Zune Marketplace and the new Zune Social online music community. Zune is set apart from its competitors by having all the following features:
Wireless sync. Consumers can set their Zune to automatically sync to their PC collection via a home wireless network whenever it’s placed in its dock or plugged in to charge, making it easy to keep the Zune updated with the latest music or podcasts. Consumers can also manually start a wireless sync from their device as soon as they are within range of their wireless network.
Wireless sharing. Share select music, pictures and audio podcasts with other Zune devices nearby. Consumers can listen to any received song up to three times and even pass it along to other friends with a Zune.
Redesigned Zune software. Easily drag and drop music, videos and photos to simple icons to sync content to a Zune, create playlists or burn CDs. A new search feature gives consumers one master view across music, videos and podcasts. Search for an artist to find all relevant content — what’s already in a consumer’s collection and what’s available in Zune Marketplace.
Zune Social. Consumers can find music they like by seeing what other like-minded individuals are listening to. People can create customizable Zune Cards, which update automatically based on the music they listen to on their Zune and via the Zune software on their PC. See what friends are listening to, play samples of music directly from others’ Zune Cards, send song recommendations or browse artist pages. When consumers find something they like, they can link directly to Zune Marketplace to buy it.
Updated Zune Marketplace. The new Zune Marketplace is designed to make it fun to browse. Choose from over 3 million songs and a broad collection of albums, music videos, podcasts, and digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3s to download and sync to a Zune.
Zune Pass. For about the price of one CD per month ($14.99 per month), consumers can get flat-rate access to millions of available songs. They also have the option to buy songs, albums and music videos individually.
Recorded television content to go. The Zune software will now import broadcast content recorded on Microsoft Windows Media Center for Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, so consumers can sync it to their Zune.
FM tuner. Consumers can tune into their favorite FM radio stations on the go. Zune will even display the name of the song and the artist, using Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) information from stations that broadcast it.
More information on Zune and images of the new Zune Originals designs are available at http://www.zune.net/press.
Great idea from Microsoft to offer a Pink Zune to help fight breast cancer. Since it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month Microsoft is teaming up with Warriors in Pink to fight breast cancer. 100% of the sale price, not just the profit, will go to the Susan G. Koman For the Cure.
Discuss this on the forum here.
Microsoft announced three new models of Zune portable digital media players: a sleek, black Zune 80GB hard-drive model, which has a bright 3.2-inch screen and comes with premium headphones (ERP $249.99; all prices are U.S.); the ultraportable Zune 4GB (ERP $149.99); and Zune 8GB (ERP $199.99) flash models, both available in pink, green, black and glossy red. The new Zune devices feature the Zune Pad navigation button, with its touch-sensitive surface. Consumers can flick their thumbs over the pad to fly through lists of songs or albums or to fast-forward through picture slide shows or videos. For those who need to pause, advance or adjust the volume on the device without looking, they can also navigate the Zune Pad using physical cues by pressing on the four sides or the center of the button to adjust the volume or choose the next track.
Together with the original Zune 30GB, the new devices round out the player family and lets users choose the size, color or price that suits them best. Every Zune device includes built-in wireless features and an FM tuner, and they all have a bright color display that is perfect for showing off album art, pictures, videos and podcasts. All devices have been given distinctive new menus, and it is easy to customize the background screen with a personal picture. Ensuring that existing Zune owners benefit from the advances in this release, all Zune 30GB devices will be automatically updated with all the new features as well as the new device software design this fall.
New features for fall include the following:
• Wireless sync. Zune devices will automatically sync over consumers’ home wireless networks with this helpful new feature, aimed at ensuring that Zune owners always have the latest podcasts and other content ready to go when they‘re leaving home. Syncing with the collection on their PC happens via a home wireless network and will start on its own when the device is placed in its dock or plugged in to charge. Alternatively, the sync can be started manually.
• Extended wireless sharing.Share select full-length songs, albums, playlists, pictures and even audio podcasts from device to device. Consumers can now listen to any song received up to three times with no time restrictions, and they can now also pass along songs to other friends who have a Zune.
• Recorded television content to go. The Zune software will now automatically import broadcast content recorded on Microsoft® Windows® Media Center for Windows Vista® Home Premium or Ultimate, so consumers can sync them onto their Zune media player and watch them on the bus, in their car or wherever they want when they’re out and about.
Connecting People Through Music
Launching first in beta, Zune Social, a beta online community Web site, gives people a place to share their music tastes, knowledge and experiences with others. Anyone can create a free, customizable Zune Card that automatically updates to reflect the music they are listening to on their Zune or with Zune software on their computer. The Zune Card shows most recently played tracks and highlights that person’s all-time music favorites. Other members of Zune Social can play samples of the songs a user has been playing directly from a friend’s Zune Card or link to Zune Marketplace, where they can buy or download the music. In a nod to the inherently social nature of music, Zune Social will eventually enable its members to place the Zune Card on today’s most popular social networking sites, where it will continue to update automatically and show off what its owners are listening to.
In addition to creating a friends list, members of Zune Social can send song links and messages to each other, post comments on a friend’s profile page or on their favorite artist pages. They can discover new music by seeing what their friends are listening to, receiving recommendations from others in the community or by seeing what the top fans of artists they’re interested in are listening to. Each artist page will list the Zune Cards of the people who listen to that artist the most, making it easy for other Zune Social members to browse their recent playlists and discover new content they can sample, purchase or download with a Zune Pass.
Zune Marketplace and Software: Easier Than Ever to Discover New Music
The Zune Marketplace online store has been restocked and redesigned to make it even easier for people to find what they are looking for. The Zune software has also been completely redesigned with a new look and feel and lots of helpful new features. In addition to offering more than 3 million songs, the updated version of Zune Marketplace will launch with thousands of music videos for sale and over 1,000 of the top audio and video podcasts available for free. Consumers will also be able to choose from a selection of more than 1 million digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3s, which can be played with Zune or any other digital media player. A new, streamlined and highly visual layout makes it fun and easy to browse through the store, and a new integrated search feature gives consumers one view across the music, music videos and podcasts categories. By typing in an artist’s name or genre, users will see all relevant content that is either already in their collection or available in Zune Marketplace.
To let music fans try new music, Zune Marketplace continues to offer Zune Pass, which lets consumers download as much music as they want for a flat monthly rate of $14.99. To inspire Zune Pass subscribers, Zune Marketplace genre editors offer a range of playlists and promote new albums each week. Consumers can also choose to purchase music and music videos individually using Microsoft Points.
New Accessories Work Across the Product Line
Zune will also be offering a new line of accessories to help consumers get the most from their Zune content wherever they are — at home, in the car or on the go. To make it easy and affordable for existing Zune customers, original Zune accessories will work on new Zune devices and new accessories will also work with the Zune 30GB device. In addition to a selection of accessories from partners, eight new accessory options are available from Zune this fall:
• Zune Home AV Pack. Home Dock with three faceplates to accommodate each Zune device, wireless remote, AC adaptor and composite AV output cable (ERP $99.99)
• Zune Dock Pack. Home Dock with three faceplates to accommodate each Zune device and AC adapter (ERP $49.99)
• Zune Car Pack. Redesigned FM transmitter/charger and dashboard grip pad (ERP $79.99)
• Zune Cable Pack. Sync cable, composite AV output cable and audio cable (ERP $39.99)
• Zune Premium Headphones (ERP $39.99)
• Zune Leather Case (ERP $49.99)
• Zune Sync Cable (ERP $19.99)
• Zune AC Adapter (ERP $29.99)
On Tuesday (2 October) Bill Gates will host a press event to launch the next generation of Microsoft Zunes. The new Zunes will have more hard drive space (80 GB) and the “Nano†flash based versions will have 4 and 8 GB flash memory (with rumor of a 16 GB version). The new Zune players will have twice the hard drive space and be much slimmer than the original Zune players. Microsoft has produced over 2 million of these players and will be available in November, just in time for the holiday season.
Microsoft reported that they have shipped 1.2 million Zunes since entering the market last November. That is 200,000 more than expected since initial release of their Zune player and an average of 150,000 a month. Microsoft is still way behind Apple’s iPod sales of 100 million shipped. Considering the iPod has been around 5 years, that is an average of 20 million units shipped a year. Obviously Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do. Maybe they should have featured it in the latest Transformer movie!
Microsoft plans on releasing the next generation Zune called Draco that features 4 and 8 GB Flash memory. The next generation Zune is expected to be released by Christmas of 2007.
Apple fell well short of their sales target of 200,000 iPhones, selling 145,000. The bad news for Microsoft is a recent survey stated that 70% of Zune users planned to move from Zune to the iPhone. Looks like Microsoft better make their move soon!
 
    It appears that Microsoft will introduce games for the Zune by July 2008. This is what gamers had been hoping for and may help bring in Xbox users to Zune. However, this could possibly be the beginning of a change of focus on the Zune. The Zune could change from a portable media player to a portable gaming system or an hybrid product.
 The head of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division, Peter Moore confirmed the plans to bring games by July 2008 on January 7th. He said that the Zune’s large screen would make it ideal for playing handheld games. He however did not mention the types of games that the company would offer. But it is expected that these will not be games won’t be directly competing against PSP or DS. Instead it is expected target those who want to play simple games, while listening to music. It will most likely be similar to Apple’s offering of games for its iPod line.
 It is likely that games like Uno and Bejeweled will appear on the Zune. Which will help aid Microsoft’s Live Anywhere feature. Currently the Live Anywhere feature allows connection to Windows Vista PCs, Windows Mobile phones, and Java-enabled phones to Xbox Live. It would just fit in nicely for the Zune to feature Live Anywhere.
 There are currently hopes that this 2008 release will also include Halo. But the big issue that arises is the controller scheme. The Zune simply was not designed to play games like that. An option for Microsoft is to release an add-on that makes serious gaming possible or releasing a second generation Zune that is more suitable for gaming.
 This may turn out to be a good feature for the Zune simply because it will bring in Xbox owners. It is probably safe to assume that Microsoft is considering taking a similar path to that of PSP. However, the PSP isn’t doing as well as its much simpler competition Nintendo DS.  So it may be a risk for Microsoft to enter this market aswell as they try to push a competitor to the iPod in the media player market. Overall it appears that it would be smarter for Microsoft to release casual games like Uno instead of games like Halo, atleast for now.
