Microsoft leaks Zune Details in FCC filing

cnet-declan writes "One of my colleagues at CNET News.com has picked up on a filing that Microsoft made yesterday with the FCC. Our article reports that Microsoft's Zune media player (the iPod rival discussed before on Slashdot) is going to have features such as creating mobile social networks and streaming music to nearby friends or strangers. It's going to support the 802.11b and 802.11g wireless standards, have a 30GB hard drive, support music, movies, and photos, and have a 3-inch screen. Is this finally enough to unseat Apple?"

Heck No

[Lemurmania]

Many challengers to the mighty Pod have come; all have gone away, weeping in the night like chastened schoolboys. This too shall pass.

missing the social point

[yagu]

I've been at Microsoft, I've worked at Microsoft. This Zune may be the hit of the century on Microsoft campus. Too bad that won't be enough to sustain a profitable market for the Zune.

I have visions of geeks, sitting around the room, typing furiously at their keyboards, IM'ing with each other, in the same frigging room! Because they can!

And now, I envision those same people, sitting around with wireless mp3 (not) players, sharing each other's music wirelessly, because they can! That's not how it works for the general population. The distance to which these devices can communicate as peers limits their usefulness as social devices, i.e., the people are all going to be in the same room! I.E., they can plug their iPods into the stereo. And, at the same time will be able to talk to each other.

Apple got it right (even though it's not for me) with iTunes and the iPod. Clever marketing, sexy device (the Zune's not looking so sexy to me), and lots of social advertising. The iPod is the thing. The Zune isn't nor will it be.

The only distinguishing feature of the Zune is its wireless capability. How many of you have ever had non-stop continuous hassle free wireless experiences? I mean non-stop as in music streaming... I use it all the time with Squeezebox with the wink and nod that I will get a hiccup now and then. But, for a device that's moving?, a device that's likely to be hugely underpowered to support signal, especially transmission?. Wireless: a distinguishing feature, but a problematic one.

Looking at the company info on Microsoft, I'm guessing there'll be sales of about 60,000 Zunes.

Itunes baby Itunes not hardware

[thammoud]

The seamless integration between the iPod and iTunes are its biggest selling point. The hardware is cool but integration is what made members of my family buy the iPod. There are many people that use it as an mp3 player but the hundreds of millions of songs being sold on iTune attest to the formidable platform that Apple has put forth. I would like to hear more on what Zune will be connecting to for media.

price

[pitu]

Is this finally enough to unseat Apple?

not for me... i would also like a large price cut, please

let's say 1/3 of ipod price mhmm?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:missing the social point

[Johnboi Waltune]

There are hundreds of millions of people who commute by train every day around the world, many of them carrying iPods or similar non-networked media players. I don't see any problem for this device to have the range of several train cars. I can see it being a big hit for those commuters, if it is advertised properly (on trains, duh).

Also it should be marketed to people who workout in gyms. Many of those people are carrying iPods or whatever, and they're all in basically the same room for about an hour.

Then it can't be crippled with pointless DRM (you should be able to share any song). Fat chance of that, though.

Potential for major copyright infringement?

[Khyber]

If this device can set up ad-hoc social networks and allow users within that network to share things with each other, I wonder how the RIAA/MPAA is going to react when they realize one person bought a song or video, but over a million have that exact same copy of that song thanks to the way the Zune works?

First thing I think of when I see wireless networking with the ability to share things with others is "What kinda stuff do they have that I want, and can get without having to pay for it?"

Re:missing the social point

[aristotle-dude]

People on trains? Are you kidding me? Those people are commuting too and from work. They are not interested in sharing music. The reason why they might listen to music is to unwind and separate from the throng of people around them. It gives them an illusion of privacy to be alone with their music and collect their thoughts.

Apple has a secret.

[crazyjeremy]

Apple has a secret. Their mass-appeal toys are simple. The first ipods did one thing, music. The competitors crammed music and audio recording and yada yada yada...

The second ipod does music and videos. Not all the codecs mind you, but what percentage of regular users know what a codec is? They just know the icons with play buttons on them aren't just big pictures, they are videos and should play when clicked. The competition now steps it up a notch and does audio, video, fm recording (and broadcasting), usb mass storage, touch screens, vga screens, bluetooth, etc. But of those things, usrs only know what they know... so most of the features go unused. Users do know ipods do video though...

The next ipod incarnation will add another feature. It will be a feature people actually want / need / will use. Perhaps it's wireless sync with their home pc (with included iWiFiDock). Other toys *ahem* mp3 players will continue to blossom with features, but most people will not care.

Microsoft's new DAP/DVP/social networking toys will surely get some people interested, but really, who sits in a room full of strangers now and actively looks around for people to meet and talk to, speaking to 6 or 8 at a time? Is that going to be a selling point to someone who doesn't even understand how that technology works, why they would want to do it and what kind of other people would be doing the same thing? Besides a singles party or a high school, who will whip this device out to bandaid their social ineptness?

Don't get me wrong, if I had one I'd try it out, but I will never pay money for one. My VGA pocket pc with 8GB flash card plays full screen video for several hours in virtually all formats, about every audio format, and it has games on it so I can keep myself entertained when I'm with the in-laws.

And just so everyone knows, I do not like ipods. I despise them. And I actually do use features like bluetooth and fm record. My favorite DVP/DAP player at the moment (on paper) is the IUBI from Korea [iubi.co.kr]. XVID, touch screen and a big HDD. It looks simple, isn't to big, and it has a lot of features. If I could just figure out how to get one shipped to the US that would be great.

Re:missing the social point

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a sad fact that a universal constant on buses, trains, tubes, and metros the world over is everyone travelling in deathly silence from the moment they board until the moment they alight at their destination.

You consider it a "sad fact." I say, Thank God.

sell at a loss, pay vendors to push it like WinCE

[Locutus]

Sure they can unseat Apple, they just need to follow the same trail as with Palm. Microsoft can afford to lose $8-$10 billion on this too and in 5 years, who knows, Zune might have close to 50% marketshare and enough vendors willing to take the Microsoft payoffs to push Zune over 50% a few years later.

When you pay vendors to push your product with the cash Microsoft dumps on them, they can't afford to NOT 'sell' MS Zune. That also means that they can not afford to sell any other product like it either. Vendors can get 'hooked' on those marketing dollars and when they try to sell say a Linux device or Apple device, they learn how tough the MSFT habit has them hooked. IMO.

So the game has been played out before and it's the same 'nobody wins except the MS Windows monopoly' kind of ending. The only question I see is will it take 5 or 8 years?

LoB

Re:Social Networking

[toopc]

You can't see the looming hubbub? Some lurker around a school yard, posing as a 13 year old, beaming Michael Jackson tunes to children .. luring one into near the bushes. Then the local parents groups and sheriff's departments and everyone else gets into wanting to monitor or restrict these things, yada yada yada.

It's not a problem until the first time it happens.

Good point, this has been a tremendous problem with the Nintendo DS...oh wait, no it hasn't.

Re:Itunes baby Itunes not hardware

[Ucklak]

How does one get to 'surge'?

I type itunes.com in my browser, I get the Apple iTunes store.
I type surge.com, I get Coca Cola.

At this point, I've lost interest in 'Surge'.