microsoft confirms Zune
according to TechCrunch, Microsoft announced Zune, their new take on digital music, media & entertainment, earlier today. while the official Billboard-article is currently offline and microsoft.com doesn’t lose any words on it yet, there are two microsofties from the Zune-team blogging about the project: Cesar Mendendez on ZuneInsider.com and Richard Winn on his Madison & Pine blog. the official product-site is located at comingzune.com.
Zune is expected to be a holistic approach on digital media, designed to challenge Apple’s dominant combination of iPod, iTunes and iTMS in every aspect. according to engadget, Microsoft is expected to release the first Zune-media-player later this year. the device is supposed to integrate wireless-capabilities and a 30-60 gbyte harddrive within a form-factor to the iPod. suprisingly, the new Zune media service won’t be compatible with Microsoft’s current Plays-for-sure brand.
if it looks like this, then yet another company hasn’t accomplished to combine a large screen with beautiful design. this is just ugly imho
agreed, this prototype doesn’t look very appealing… still, the actual product might differ from it.
anywayl, I’m excited about zune, esp. the wireless-features… my ipod is crashing more and more every day, but I’ll wait buying a new media-player until the next gen ipods and microsoft’s stuff is out on market…
competition is soo important here…mediaplayers really didn’t see any innovation since years!