MS said to have delayed Euro Zune debut to 2009
No comment on CEO's 'speculation'
Microsoft is keeping mum over the European release date of its Zune portable media player, despite reports that the software giant has pushed back the release to 2009.
The US is already on its second-generation Zune, which was released over there in November last year. However, French newspaper Les Echos this week reported that the player will not now arrive over here until the third-generation players have been released. It claims Europeans won't get their own Zune for another ten months at least.
Microsoft's second-generation Zune: as seen in the US
Last year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that the Zune, originally released in the US in 2006, won’t go on sale Europe until 2008.
However, when Register Hardware contacted the Seattle-based behemoth to ask about any potential delay to the PMP’s schedule 2008 European release date, a cheery spokeswoman would only say: “Microsoft does not comment on rumour or speculation”.
So Ballmer was merely speculating about a European launch, rumour-mongering so-and-so...
US-based Zune fans can currently choose between 4GB, 8GB, 30GB and 80GB incarnations of the PMP. The two smallest capacity models look similar to an iPod Nano, whilst the 30GB and 80GB models draw their styling from classic ‘fatter’ iPod designs.
COMMENTS
Vista and Zune: a winning combination
When the rest of you catch up and start using Vista (or next gen Windows) you'll quickly learn to love Vista [or Vienna!] Media Center.
THEN, you'll want a zune.
Good use for a zune!
Alternatively if you're scared of having your iPod stolen by either of the people in the UK who don't yet have one...
http://hideapod.com/
Arf!
This market is 90% style and 10% technology
People get their ears pierced. From a rational perspective that is a very stupid thing to do. It must hurt like a bitch and you expose yourself to infection etc etc. Not something a reasonable person does.... but it looks cool!
Teenage girls could wear granny knickers which are technically superior to gstrings or whatever the latest are these days. Granny knickers must be warmer and more comfortable [some assumptions here as I don't cross dress much]. But no they'd rather wear something made out of dental floss and a miniskirt because that's cool [and probably cold too!].
Music players live in fashion space rather than tech space. Typical teenager would no more buy a Zune than they'd let mum hold their hand crossing the street. Showing off a Zune would be social suicide. Trying to make Zune cool with "welcome to the social" etc just is not enough.
Features are not very important. The ipod is successful mainly because there are a lot of things that were technically feasible but were left out to keep it simple to use.
Sound quality is also not that important either. So long as it is good enough. No kid does a spec sheet crawl looking at distortion figures. They'd rather just know if it is cool.
So perhaps Zune appeals to a few lonely geeks, but that's not enough to sustain a business.
Wifi, syncing, online capabilities....
..I just want to have my music laid out in a sensible format, with straightforward, pushbutton controls [so I can change tracks and volume with the device in my pocket] and decent sound quality with a good equaliser so I can toy with the levels and hear a difference through my Shure SE110s [if you are interested in sound quality, they are a bit pricier but worth it].
As such, I have an old iRiver H320 with Rockbox on it.
Does everything I want, if I get really bored, I can play Doom II on it.
Lovely.
Steven R
Zune is rubbish
Lets see - the Zune is a poor mans iPod - lack of content from the store and just poorly though out iPod rip offs in terms of styling and software. In fact the software was so poorly thought out that even simple menu items do not always fit on the screen.
Add in wireles sync (that takes an age if you need to sync a lot) and the fact it needs to be plugged in to work it seems like a farce.
And tot he poster above, you cannot surf the Zune store over wi-fi - it is just for syncing much slower than plugging it into a USB - pointless.
If you want to buy music wirelessly you need an iPod Touch or iPhone to acces the iTunes Wifi store.
