Chris Cantell Discusses Technologies: Innovations of Microsoft’s Zune player by Martina Janeckova

Recently, Microsoft executives have been looking for an exclusive video programming for its portable media player, which struggles to gain bigger market share. In May, Microsoft said that just 2 million Zunes had been sold since the product’s launch in November 2006, whereas Apple has an average iPod sale 3.5 million per month. There have been rumors that Zune will go out of production, but Microsoft denied this. Zune is a brand of digital media players and services which includes portable media players, client software, and the Zune Marketplace online music and video store. The Zune’s software allows users to manage files, rip audio CDs, buy songs, music videos and TV shows at the online store. Gaming is also being added. Now Zune is looking for nonconventional programming that can capitalize on the device’s social networking platform, said Richard Winn, director of entertainment development at Zune. He said that Microsoft’s gaming console inspired them to think differently about Zune too, as “Halo”, the video game franchise helped establish Xbox as a tool for remote multiplayer action as opposed to a single-player mode. Similarly, Winn sees Zune as a tool for a more communal experience. The key element is Zune social, which connects Zune users through social networking software. This software, among other capabilities, allows fellow subscribers know the last song played. Winn said that the characters in an original program could possibly have their own playlists which could be downloaded into user’s devices. So Zune is trying to not only add programming that iTunes doesn’t offer but also take the programming it does and enrich it with Zune Social.

by Martina Janeckova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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