Zune Gets New Models, Features

New Zune music players, including two relatively inexpensive models with flash memory instead of hard drives, will become available in Nov. 2007. Microsoft is also launching Zune Social, a music-oriented social networking site, in hopes of building brand loyalty. However, the announcements came a month after Apple updated its iPod family with groundbreaking new devices and features that the Zune line still lacks, meaning that Microsoft will have a hard time taking market share from Apple this holiday season.

What’s New?

Launched in Nov. 2006, the Zune product family represented a significant break from Microsoft’s prior digital media strategy, which relied on partners to create hardware and services. Like Apple’s iPod family, the Zune device uses its own client application and online store—it does not work with Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and cannot play Windows Media content purchased from other stores. (The Zune can play audio encoded in the Advanced Audio Coding format used by Apple’s music products, but like all other non-Apple players it cannot play songs from Apple’s iTunes Music Store.)