Labels: iPod, Zune

Labels: Apple, iPhone, iPod, Zune

Some of you may have already heard, but tomorrow we’re dropping the suggested retail price for Zune to $199. It’s part of the normal product lifecycle, something we’ve had on the books for months. We just got some research back and customer satisfaction with the 30GB device is really high (around 94%) and we expect even more consumers will now want to discover the Zune experience at the new lower price.

Labels: iPod, Zune

Labels: Digital media, iTunes, Zune

Acknowledging its proprietary audio technology was a marketplace flop, Sony Corp. is shuttering its Connect digital music store and will open its portable media players to other formats.

The moves were announced Thursday at a Berlin consumer electronics trade fair as the Japanese electronics pioneer unveiled a pair of new digital Walkmans that can play the Windows Media Audio, MP3 and AAC audio formats.

Sony said it would phase out operations of its struggling Connect online store, which sold songs in the company's proprietary ATRAC format.

"This gives customers greater flexibility in their music software approach," the company said in a statement. "As a result, Sony will be phasing out the Connect Music Services based on Sony's ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe."

Labels: Digital media, iTunes, Zune

It's hardly surprising that MTV has dumped its 'Urge' music partnership with Microsoft and hooked up with RealNetworks and Verizon. What would you do if you got stabbed in the back?

Zune is hardwired to Microsoft's Zune store. If you want songs for your Zune, you buy them from Microsoft.

In other words, Microsoft screwed its industry partners when it launched Zune. MTV's Urge store was part of the PlaysForSure camp and I'm sure execs at the network were just waiting for the chance to get one back at Microsoft after it launched Zune without PlaysForSure compatibility.

They did this Tuesday by hooking up with Real and Verizon.

The bigger question is this: How can Microsoft ever again ask partners in the increasingly important online entertainment space to take its promises of ongoing support and compatibility seriously?

Labels: Digital media, Zune

Warranty: One year

Features:

- 30GB hard drive stores up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 pictures or 100 hours of video (128 Kbps)

- 3” bright color LCD display can be customized with your photos for a personalized appearance

- Resolution 320×240, vertical or horizontal orientation

- Ultracompact player measures just 0.6” thin and weighs 5 oz.

- Supports MP3, WMA and ACC audio formats, displays JPEG image formats plus displays WMV, MPEG-4 and H.264 video formats

- Built-in FM tuner with RBDS broadcast signal support to display artist and track title

Labels: Zune

The artificial audio of MP3s is quickly becoming the primary way people listen to music. Apple already has sold 100 million iPods, and more than a billion MP3 files are traded every month through the Internet.

But the music contained in these computer files represents less than 10 percent of the original music on the CDs. In its journey from CD to MP3 player, the music has been compressed by eliminating data that computer analysis deems redundant, squeezed down until it fits through the Internet pipeline.

When even the full files on the CDs contain less than half the information stored to studio hard drives during recording, these compressed MP3s represent a minuscule fraction of the actual recording. For purists, it's the dark ages of recorded sound.

How much the audio quality is affected by the MP3 process depends on the compression strategy, the encoder used, the playback equipment, computer speed and many other steps along the way. Experts agree, however, that the audio quality of most MP3s is somewhere around FM radio. The best digital audio, even with increased sampling rates and higher bit rates, still falls short of the natural quality of now-obsolete analog tape recording.

How good MP3s sound obviously also depends greatly on the playback system. But most MP3s are heard through cheap computer speakers, plastic iPod docking stations or, worse yet, those audio abominations called earbuds.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, iTunes, Zune

Dell announced plans yesterday to acquire a private MP3 software company called ZING Systems Inc., an indication that Round Rock is interested in re-entering the MP3 product ring.

In September 2005, Dell unveiled its own player, the DJ Ditty, to compete with the iPod Shuffle –you may not recall because it all happened so quickly. The Ditty was pulled last August, less than a year after its launch. At the time, a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal the company wanted to focus instead on its core products, like PCs and printers.

ZING licenses its technology to Sirius (SIRI) and SanDisk (SNDK) for their MP3 players, and according to the company’s website, its software lets people not only listen to live digital streams but collect songs from them and make playlists.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune

Labels: Zune

[On July 19] on the earnings call, Microsoft announced that Zune has achieved our goal of one million units sold in, as well as Microsoft earning over $50 billion in annual revenue. We actually went above and beyond our goal: we sold 1.2 million units.

Labels: Digital media, Humor, Zune

A member of the Doom9 Forum known only as "Divine Tao" claims to have defeated Microsoft Relevant Products/Services's Digital Rights Management (DRM) platform for securing the distribution of digital media files over the Internet. According to other Forum members who have already downloaded it, the new utility program for PCs running Windows XP and Vista not only works wonderfully but can even run on Microsoft's Zune player.

Divine Tao's new upload to the Doom9 Forum is actually an update to a utility first posted by Forum member "Viodentia" way back in April of 2006, after which Microsoft was forced to release two patches as a quick fix. However, Viodentia quickly broke the software giant's fixes.

Microsoft subsequently went to court but was later forced to drop its lawsuit given that the software giant had been unable to identify or locate the utility's author.

"Lacking the source code to the extant programs, I can only offer this output of my own efforts," wrote Divine Tao in the hacker's initial posting at the Doom9 Forum. This is an apparent reference to the software giant's prior claims that the source code for its DRM platform had been illegally accessed by a company insider.

Labels: Digital media, Zune

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune

"We're still about nine months [actually, it's closer to 6 months --Paul] into having Zune in the marketplace. We're very pleased with the progress. We've sold a little over a million Zunes. In the category we're in, the hard-disk-based category, we've got about 10 percent market share. It's a good start. It's not an overwhelming start. I'm not going to pretend it's some gigantic move."

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune

Labels: Zune

A new music lyrics service launched by Yahoo illustrates the potential and the challenges of integrating lyrics into digital music products today.

At Yahoo and elsewhere, lyrics remain a notable omission from digital music files either purchased or acquired through subscription models. Not only do consumers not receive song lyrics with their download, they can't search for songs by lyrics within Yahoo Music Unlimited or any other digital music service including iTunes.

Labels: Digital media, iTunes, Zune

There are ways to make money on an Xbox. Generally it's not on the hardware itself; we'll probably be gross margin neutral on that over the life cycle of the product and try to break even on that.

[Regarding the Zune,] people always want to say, gosh, Apple has such a big lead, what are you going to do, how do you possibly compete with that, and why would you bother? And part of my response is, you know, they've sold 100 million devices. So, let's just do some math. You and I can do this. How many people are there in the world? Five, six billion ... every single one of them has a music experience ... [some math ensues] ... you have a target audience of a 1.5 billion people. Not everyone is going to want a digital device; we can go through the yak-yak around that. But the audience is huge, and we are really early in what's going to happen in the music space. And the music industry is … in the process of reinventing itself.

And so for us, A) there's a big market; B) we think the opportunity is just beginning; and C) if you want to be in what we call connected entertainment, you have to be able to connect movies and video with music, with games, with communications technology to be able to do that. You can't not have a player.

So, early phases of this, we're about 10 percent market share in the category we're in, which is the hard disk. That's a good first step. Like Xbox was before it, the first step is what it is, it's nice, it's not perfect. People have commentary and questions and things we can improve, and we would say, yep, you're right. And we're not stupid, we see all those things, and we're good developers, and we know what we need to do. And you're going to see the product get better and better and better. You're going to see us be relentless in marketing. And you're going to see us expand into other parts of the category beyond the hard disk space. And I think we can be successful; I think we can build a nice business.

[On communities,] Zune today probably isn't a great example in the sense that community is part of the process for Zune that we believe in, and we haven't...really created the community environment.

[Regarding consumer electronics,] From a balanced perspective there are categories where we're not going to do devices. We don't do phones. We don't have plans to do phones ... There are other places like Zune where because of Apple's success, and frankly because of the uneven experience we were able to deliver just by being the platform provider, we decided we had to do it ourselves. I have no desire to do hardware ... Xbox is the hardest piece of consumer electronics hardware to produce in the world, no debate. It just taxes way more of anything you could possibly want to do. Zune technically speaking is dramatically easier. Almost any other device you could describe to me would be dramatically easier than producing what we did in Xbox.

And so by becoming experts at doing that, we are building core skill sets that we can leverage other places if we think the business requires it.

I believe people are going to want an entertainment experience that's always connected regardless of the device and the location they're in. If I want to do that, I've got to be great at video, I've got to be great in music, I've got to be great in games, and I have to be great at communications. Those are the building blocks.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPod, Microsoft, Zune

Microsoft announced late Wednesday that its Zune digital media player is "holding steady" and continues to be the number two selling hard drive-based portable media player.

According to NPD data cited by Microsoft, the Zune controlled 9.1 percent of the hard drive-based portable media player market in March, second only to Apple's iPod, which presumably controlled most of the other 90 percent. To bolster sales, Microsoft is adding a "baby pink" Zune model alongside the previous black, white, and brown models. The pink Zune will become widely available in May, Microsoft says.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune

Question: Should Microsoft quit the MP3 player market?

Answer: I thought they already did. They’re spending a lot of money, but they’re on a dead end. They always were. They saw the Dip, but instead of embracing it by completely reinventing what it meant to be an MP3 player, they just played it safe and made a piece of me-too.

When you copy something that’s already on the other side of the Dip, you’ve already lost. Microsoft “quit” the MP3 player market when they identified the wrong Dip. They picked the obvious, “safe” one—the one committees of people could live with, but one that is so big and so steep that even Microsoft doesn’t have the money to get through it.

Microsoft has a long history of sticking through Dips, and a long history of quitting dead ends. I have no idea what they’re thinking when it comes to the Zune, but it’s a dead end, through and through.

Question: Should Apple quit the personal computer market?

Answer: Apple has already crossed that Dip, big time. Not the “personal computer Dip” but the Dip of “style-conscious, designer’s, multimedia, student, family computer.” They’re the best in the world at that. They own it. They profit from it. Sure, if Steve hadn’t been arrogant, they could have been best in the world at a much bigger, much juicier market. But they’re not. Once they deal with that—and I think they mostly have—then they can erect a wall behind them, a bigger dip, one that prevents others from following. Over time, personal computers become a profitless commodity while Apple’s market just gets sexier, more fun, and more profitable.

Labels: Apple, iPod, Mac, Microsoft, Zune

Lost amid the hoopla over last week's EMI announcement regarding their decision to sell digital music without digital rights management (DRM) restrictions was the fact that Apple was only the first digital music reseller to sign on for the new offerings. This week, Microsoft admitted that it, too, would offer music without DRM.

"The EMI announcement is not exclusive to Apple," a Microsoft spokesperson says. "Consumers have made it clear that unprotected music is something they want. We plan on offering it to them as soon as our label partners are comfortable with it." Microsoft says it has been working with EMI and other record labels for quite some time, and will offer DRM-free music via the Zune Marketplace, its online service for the Zune portable device, as soon as possible.

Labels: Digital media, iTunes, Zune

After a post-holiday season lull, Microsoft is ready to rally its Zune digital music player.

The software giant is readying a new marketing and advertising blitz and plans to launch the device in new colors to maintain sales before it makes a hopefully bigger splash with new features -- and possibly a flash-based player like Apple's rival iPod before the end of the year.

The ad campaign, starting next month, will focus on key differentiators for the Zune, including screen size, its wireless music exchange capability and the ability to customize the home screen.

The Zune, which is currently available in white, brown and black, will soon sport prettier colors. A baby-pink version will be available in May, and another vibrant color will be introduced a few weeks later.

Labels: Digital media, Zune

Thought I'd lay out some fundamental facts about a few audio formats - some comments show some common misperceptions.

* Mp3 – the jpeg of digital music. Supported by everyone, everywhere. Mediocre compression efficiency, but utterly dominant in personal libraries because users can simply rip to a higher bitrate. Licensable by anyone for a low fee. Universal compatibility is mp3’s key feature.

* AAC – designed for MPEG, by MPEG. Largely associated with Apple at this point, AAC was designed by a licensing body, complete with patent pool, etc.. Licensable by anyone for a (relatively pricey) fee from MPEG-LA. High compression efficiency. Compatibility is fine – as long as you buy Apple products.

* WMA – Microsoft’s audio format. Adopted by most mp3 player skus (but not by most mp3 player units, thanks to the iPod..). Freely licensable for a low fee. Also associated with WMDRM, which is supported by playsforsure devices. High compression efficiency, good compatibility story, but not as good as mp3’s.

* Ogg, FLAC, etc… - Open source codecs. Generally good compression efficiency, but very low support from services and devices. To use these is to enter untested legal waters, but they’re very interesting, and nobody is asking for money for them...yet.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPod, iTunes, Microsoft, Zune

Microsoft noted this week that Zune is maintaining its number two position in the hard disk-based MP3 player market. This data, which comes from market researchers at NPD, shows that Zune accounted for 8.7 percent of the market in February. It's unclear if this number represents retail sales only, or whether it is worldwide or US-only.

"We're pleased that Zune has been able to have such a significant impact on the market in such a relatively short time and look forward to the interest that our next wave of advertising is sure to drive in the coming month," says Zune Marketing Director Jason Reindorp. Of course, Zune is fighting an uphill battle against Apple, which commands most of the remaining 90+ percent of the market in which Zune now competes. Microsoft is expected to release new Zune models in various form factors as well as further software updates over the next year.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune

Zune 1.3 provides an improved device and software experience. Please choose to update today! Zune will automatically check for new updates when you open the Zune software with your device connected, but you can also check manually.

here’s what’s in the update:

* We’re fixing the skipping problem that some users were experiencing – that is, content acquired from Zune Marketplace will no longer skip when played on the device.

* Improved device and software reliability, when it comes to device detection, and improved sync'ing.

* We’ve made some changes to the FM Tuner so it no longer drains the battery when in sleep mode.

Labels: Digital media, Zune

I connected w/ James, the release manager for Zune, and got the official word: “Hey C, I know all of your blog readers are eagerly looking forward for the release of the Zune 1.3 Update. I feel their anticipation on the update, and I am very eager to get this out to all of them... I can’t comment on the exact date just yet, but it will be soon, as it’s in the final testing and processes to get released," he says. So there, you have it, dear blog reader: soon.

Labels: iPod, Music, Zune