Wednesday, November 08, 2006

WSJ: Mossberg Reviews Microsoft Zune

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY By WALTER S. MOSSBERG The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft's Zune Challenges iPod
Player Could Lure Converts,But It Makes CompromisesAnd Is Missing Some FeaturesNovember 9, 2006

Next week, Microsoft Corp. will launch the most serious challenge ever mounted to Apple Computer's iPod and iTunes juggernaut in digital music. The software giant is introducing a portable player called the Zune, an online music store called Zune Marketplace and a new music software program called Zune that links the two. It plans to put plenty of marketing muscle behind Zune, and promises to expand and refine this new product line in coming years.
This isn't Microsoft's first effort to stop the iPod, but it's the first for which the software giant is adopting Apple's own business and design model -- where one company makes and controls the hardware, software and online component, and tightly integrates them. The Zune is produced by Microsoft's Xbox group, which builds game consoles on that same end-to-end principle....read more: here