Priced at around $250 to compete with Apple’s 30 gig iPod, Microsoft will launch a digital download store à la iTunes, where Zune owners can buy songs for about $1 each and albums at prices comparable to iTunes’.

JONATHAN SILVERSTEIN of ABC writes:

With Apple in firm control of more than 70 percent of the digital media player market, Microsoft has its work cut out for it, even though close to 70 percent of Americans don’t even own a player yet.

David Pogue at New York Times writes:

“Competition is good and all. But what, exactly, is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication — in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features — just to indulge Microsoft’s “we want some o’ that” envy.

While Walter S. Mossberg over at Wall Street Journal writes:

Overall, the iPod and iTunes are still the champs. Still, I expect the Zune to attract some converts and to get better with time. And this kind of competition from a big company with deep pockets and lots of talent is good for consumers in the long run.”

Full Rerviews:

ABC News

New York Times

Wall Street Journal

Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune let the cat out of the bag yesterday, telling Reuters that “a Zune phone is definitely part of the future of this brand.”

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Samsung plans to complement their store with their renage of MP3 players much like what Apple does with iTunes.

Samsung has tapped MusicNet to provide the library of songs for the store, which will likely offer both a monthly subscription and individual downloads. MusicNet currently powers Yahoo! Music Unlimited and MTV Networks’ URGE, which was developed with Microsoft and will be the primary service in Windows Media Player 11.

Do we really need another music store? what are they gonna offer that others haven’t?
Quiet a dumb idea if you ask me.

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It was on the cards for some time now. Microsoft’s ‘iPod Killer’ as the rumors were has now become official and is called Zune.

This is what Microsoft had to say about Zune:

“Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together.”

So..expect to hear alot of “Zune” this and “Zune” that in the next couple of months.

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ZuneLive.com follows in the vein of previous Microsoft domain – Live.com.

Looks like Microsoft’s stance is to add the word “live” in their products as Apple adds “i” to it’s range of products eg. “iPod”.

Some technical people decided to do a whois on the domain and found that the owner of ZuneLive.com was a certain man named Jack Spurr from Nova Scotia,that prompted many to disregard it from Microsoft because they never did register a domain under a person’s name instead they would always register a domain name under the Microsoft Inc banner.

But ZuneNation did a little research and found out that at least two other previous Microsoft domains were under the name Jack Spurr (Live.com and MicrosoftGadgets.com).

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