Jul 29th, 12:05 am

By:
Mike

Latest in the Zune World

Well, a few things have surfaced from around the internet about Zune.

• Retail Vision Summit
• Zune to come with preloaded content
• Release date.
• Financial Analyst Meeting

Microsoft Retail Vision Summit

First of all, the Microsoft Retail Vision Summit took place recently with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer taking center stage to chat to the audience about the Zune. We are trying to hunt down some audio or video footage from the summit but until we do that, here is a quote from what Steve had to say about the Zune:

“The point of view we’re taking, is quite unique. Over time, what this is all about, just like my example with Tiger Woods, it’s all about how do multiple groups of people, friends, interact together in various entertainment experiences, whether it’s watching the British Open, whether it’s enjoying movies, and music, and other video entertainment, whether it is involved in an interactive gaming session, a lot of the IQ we’re putting into is how you view community and entertainment together. That’s where our fundamental differentiation comes from.”

Unfortunately that, and this picture is about all we have for you at the moment on the summit, we will update when we can get our hands on some video or audio footage from the day.

If you would like to see some more pictures from the Microsoft Summit, have a look at this flickr blog with tones of pictures from the day.

Zune to come with Pre-Loaded Content

News out of the zuneinsider blog is that there is going to be pre-loaded content on the retail version of the Zune. Unfortunately, thats all that we really now. If only we could get some more info… but for now that’s all that has been said, so who knows if it will come with some nice pre-loaded content or the Windows xp - My Documents type of content. With those iconic pictures or the Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Highway Blues in the music folder.

If it was to be this sort of pre-loaded content, it really would be nothing to write home about thats for sure.

Zune Release Date

Who knows if Microsoft will be sticking to this, but judging by the photo above, it looks like Microsoft is still aiming for some Zune products to be out before the years end. Lets hope the Zune does not follow Vistas path with delay after delay.

Financial Analyst Meeting

Another Microsoft meeting took place on Thursday, the Financial Analyst Meeting. The main topic talked about the Zune was how Microsoft is ready for a long hawl and does not expect Zune to be a cash cow. Microsoft is expecting for the Zune to take up to 5 years for a RIO (return on investment)

Below is an extract from what was said by Robbie Bach, at the meeting who is Microsofts President of Entertainment & Devices Division :

“Finally, one of the things that we just announced last week is a move into the music and video space in portable entertainment, something we call Zune. I want to spend a few moments here talking about Zune and give you a little bit of context. I think the first thing to understand about Zune is that we are taking a more integrated approach to this. Microsoft will be involved in the hardware, in the software, and the services. We think that’s important to produce the number one thing that has to happen in this marketplace, which is a great customer experience. And we have to tie those things together in some ways like we have in the Xbox world, where in the hardware, software, and Xbox Live service we have tied things together in a great experience.

It is something that is going to take time. If you want to think about the investment time line for this, you have to think this is not a six-month initiative and somehow in six months we’re going to have captured the marketplace. This is something that’s going to be a three, four, five-year investment horizon. We have to look at it that way. We have to invest in it that way. We will start with one product this fall in the United States. We will expand next calendar year into broadening the product line, as well as broadening the geographies we cover. So, it is something that we’re going to invest over time.

Now, unlike Xbox, which was just you would think of billions of dollars invested to get into the marketplace, we think of this in the hundreds of millions of dollars in terms of investment over time. So, it’s not of the same scale financially because of the way the business model works. But from a strategic perspective, it’s very important. It’s important for us to have a play in this portable entertainment space in particular relative to music and video, because, as you’ll see in a moment, it really completes out the story of what we want to do.

I’ll also point out that we’re not just introducing Zune to do the same thing that other people do. We think there are real advantages to what Microsoft has to offer here. I think the number one thing I would point to, and I talked about this briefly earlier, is community. When you go to any music site today, what do you do? Well, today, you can buy music, but it’s hard to meet your friends there, it’s hard to share music there, hard to share music experiences there, hard to find out information about your favorite bands, and what they’re doing, and where their next concert is, and how you can get there. That whole community aspect, which is what we do on Xbox Live, absolutely applies in other entertainment spaces as well. And so we think community is a fundamental part of what has to happen here, and a place where we have real experience, both from our Xbox experience, as well as from our Windows Live and MSN experiences, where we can drive some very exciting things here.

We also think discovery is key. Figuring out new ways for people to find their favorite music, certainly, but in some ways more importantly their favorite video. Video now is not just a list of things that are produced by Hollywood, it’s video that’s produced by individuals around the world. It’s family videos. It’s friends’ videos. It’s funny community videos. It’s user-created content. And so figuring out how you help people discover the world of what they want, and then enabling them to share it with their friends are two sort of sides of the same coin that are secret to what we have to do with Zune and the services that we’re going to drive there.

And then the third secret I’ll say is looking at Zune as part of our broader picture. You know, in the case of Apple, they have certainly an iMac business, they have their iPod business, and they’ve sold a few things in the home that compete with Media Center, although the numbers there are actually quite small. Look at our business: We have a burgeoning IPTV business that we think is going to grow and be successful in the home. We have Media Center in over 14 million units and growing around the world. We have Xbox 360 in place and growing around the world. We have Xbox Live, MSN, and our Windows Live initiatives expanding. Put all of those things together, and then take Zune and put it in the context of that. It enables us to complete the picture. It enables us to have the full entertainment and connected entertainment experience that we want to have. And so that’s why Zune is important, and it is a way we’re going to differentiate ourselves, because the experience of having Zune in that connected environment is going to be a dramatically better experience than you get just from having a portable music player.

So, that’s a little bit about what we’re doing in the portable entertainment space. There will obviously be more on that as we go forward in the marketplace, but we’re very excited about the entry there.”

The above extract covers every thing that was talked about at the FAM but if you would like to read more on the meeting and the other topics discussed there visite this link: here

There is also the Power Point presentation up for download here 16mb
And a web cast is available here

This post and any more can all be discussed over at the ZuneInfo.com fourms.