ALKHOBAR, 19 September 2006 — Last week on these pages we brought you the latest news on the video format war. This week, we turn our attention to the struggle for dominance in the digital music sector — which is quickly turning into the portable digital media sector. For the last three years, Apple has had little competition in this market, capturing about 75 percent market share, but that’s about to change.
On Thursday, Microsoft signaled that it’s going to focus on digital music as part of its “Connected Entertainment” vision. The company unveiled details of the first products to be released under its Zune project — although no fixed launch date was announced. Zune is the name of the project, the brand and the device. Designed around the principles of sharing, discovery and community, Zune will aim to create new ways for consumers to connect and share entertainment experiences. The Zune experience centers around connection — connection to your library, connection to friends, connection to community and connection to other devices.
The first Zune products include a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, three-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: Black, brown and white.
Every Zune device creates an opportunity for connection. Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.
Zune wants to make it easy to find music you love — whether it’s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.
To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records and V2/Artemis Records.
To enhance the Zune experience, three accessory packs help Zune users enjoy their music where they want to, at home or on the road. The packs and the individual accessories, all designed exclusively for Zune, will be available at launch:
• The Zune Car Pack includes everything needed to hit the road with a Zune device, such as the built-in FM tuner with AutoSeek and the Zune Car Charger.
• The Zune Home A/V Pack works to enhances the product’s home use experience through five products that integrate Zune with the TV and music speakers: Zune AV Output Cable, Zune Dock, Zune Sync Cable, Zune AC Adapter and the Zune Wireless Remote for Zune Dock.
• Zune Travel Pack is a set of five products designed to keep friends and family entertained on the road: Zune Premium Earphones, Zune Dual Connect Remote, Zune Gear Bag, Zune Sync Cable and the Zune AC Adapter.
In addition to the features available at launch, built-in wireless technology and powerful software provide a strong foundation to continue to build new shared experiences around music and video. As Zune evolves, the device can be easily updated. The Zune software on your PC will let you know when these updates are available for download. Learn the latest about Zune by registering at www.comingzune.com.
One negative is that Zune will not be PlaysForSure compliant. This means that users won’t be able to use a Zune player with Napster, MSN Music, MTV’s Urge and Yahoo Music Unlimited , for example. Microsoft claims it will continue to support and develop PlaysForSure, but Zune does deem to be a heavy blow to these music services. The PlaysForSure strategy is to counter Apple by offering consumers a range of devices and services from different companies, with a common logo signaling compatibility. The results have been less than stellar and Zune is sure to further challenge the economic viability of these services. Some of them probably won’t go down without a fight. Seattle-based RealNetworks, which runs the Rhapsody music service, affiliated with PlaysForSure, has promised to strike back against Microsoft’s move.
And then of course there’s still the iPod /iTunes/iTunes Music Store triumvirate. The MS Zune announcement came right after Apple Computer unveiled three new iPod models, including one the size of a matchbook and launched a movie download service through its popular iTunes online store.
The new iPod Shuffle, which Apple is trumpeting as the “world’s smallest digital music player” is half a cubic inch in volume, weighs half an ounce and features an aluminum design and a built-in clip for wearability. The new iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs, a battery life of 12 hours and retails for $79.
Apple also introduced new versions of the iPod and the iPod Nano. The fifth version of the iPod includes a brighter 2.5-inch color display for playing movies and videogames from the iTunes Store. The new iPod is available with 30GB of storage for $249, and 80GB for $349. The 80GB model can hold up to 20,000 songs, or 100 hours of video.
The new iPod Nano offers 24 hours of battery life and more than twice the music capacity for the same price as the previous generation. The device’s aluminum enclosure is available in five colors, is even more compact than the original and has a brighter, more vibrant display for viewing album art or up to 25,000 stored photos. The Nano sells for $149 for 2GB of storage, $199 for 4GB, and $249 for 8GB.
If you’re a diehard Apple fan, it might be tough to convince you to switch. But truth be told, iPod hasn’t yet taken over the Saudi market or much of the developing world either — that’s where the majority of young adults on this planet live. This is in part because Apple has restricted the premium services and downloads from its iTunes Store to customers in North America, Western Europe, Australia and Japan. If Microsoft were to make it’s Zune Marketplace truly a global market place, it could quickly tap into the pent up desire for digital content from youth in countries outside Apple’s geographic reach. Let’s face it, there are loads of folks with credit cards and money to spend who don’t live in North America, Western Europe, Australia or Japan. Wouldn’t it be pretty silly if Apple did the hard work of building demand for portable digital content and Microsoft registered the “Ka-Ching” for those efforts?
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