New Zunes + Social, They R A Comin’
11.08.07 - 01:57pm
The name the Zune is still not enough to get hearts a trembling the same as when someone says the 3G Nano, but nevertheless, Microsoft has money, time and the will to keep chipping away at the iPod dominance.
On Tuesday, November 13, two new Zunes will be rolled out onto the Marketplace with hipper styling, colors other than “brown”and some new features. By itself the new Zunes may not have enough to impact their place in the iPod world but combined with ever greater software and a new social website they stand more of a chance.
The website will feature a “Zune Card” or an online profile that will display the users image, current playing song, background and bio. Similar to MySpace one can add comments onto friends profiles as well as recommend music to one another. The music will be playable via your friends on their PC in 30 second tracks. The “Zune Cards” can also be tagged onto other social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
The new Zunes will also be featuring new software. The software allows for some cool things such as tapping into video you have recorded from your TV using Windows Media Center (provided you’ve got the new Vista), and then watching it on your Zune without having to pay an additional download fee. (Zune users won’t have to purchase their TV shows xing out iTunes.) There will also be support for h.264 and MPEG-4 file format and one will be able to sync wirelessly with a host computer.
A million new DRM free music tracks are also being added to the Zune store. Charts will showcases the most played artists, music and tracks on the Zune social website allowing users to easily see the latest songs on the marketplace.
If you have the old model Zune there will be no need to get the new Zunes as Microsoft will be adding software updates to be installed on old Zunes and on PC’s. “By accepting the updates, your Zune will have the same software that comes preloaded on all new devices,” Microsoft said.
In addition to the new Zunes, new software, and new social website, Microsoft is also creating a new Zune advertising budget, doubling their one from 2006 for just the first seven months of 2007. So far they have spent $1.7 million in new ads. Zune will also be continuing their “On the Road” campaign showcasing artists in live shows throughout the country whilst promoting the Zune and the Zune lifestyle of “You make it you”.
We are very much aware of the strength of our competition, but once our company gets into something, it will not give up,” said Chris Stephenson, general manager of Microsoft’s Entertainment Global Marketing. “It’s good being in the Number two place — we can fight the good fight.”
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