Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Microsoft’s Zune HD

Microsoft recently launched the Zune HD, a portable media player. Zune HD has several features including:

  • Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
  • The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
  • The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.*
  • Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
  • Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

As you can see, the Zune HD offers almost the same features as the Apple’s Ipod. Microsoft’s product offers a more advanced set of features, but I am not sure if consumers are able to distinguish those features from the Ipod. Microsoft has been trying to get Apple’s market share since it launched the first Zune almost 3 years ago with little success.


I think it is going to be very hard for Microsoft to gain some market share from the Ipod. Zune HD may be a better product than the latest Ipod, but the Ipod brand is already well established. Microsoft is probably a few years late in this game…

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