New Zunes on the way. Not for us in the UK though.

Duncan Geere MP3 players
Share

new-zunes-16-and-120.jpgIf you’ve been aching to get a Zune, then you’re going to have to ache a bit longer, and probably a bit harder too. In the USA and Canada, the only countries where Microsoft’s MP3 player is available, it looks like 16GB and 120GB versions are nearing release.

The plastic’s glossier, and the capacity is greater than previous models, but of most interest is a comment by Matt Rosoff at cnet. He says “I can’t say much, but I’ve seen what Microsoft’s planning, and befitting its status as a software plus services company, the real advances aren’t going to be in the Zune hardware, but in the Zune software and associated services”.

Zune already offers a great subscription system, and a social network that ties into it. Better than great in fact – I wish it was available in the UK so I could use it on my imported Zune that I use as my main media player. A little bit of faster pace is needed in rolling out the Zune outside of North America, but at least they’re not giving up fighting Apple quite yet – they’re the best competitor I’ve seen.

Zune (via Engadget)

Related posts: Zunes for Democrats and Republicans | Nokia to use Zune Marketplace? “Maybe”, says grapevine

Duncan Geere
For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv

3 comments

  • Do we know why Microsoft haven’t released the Zune in the UK market? If its so good, why do we have to wait?! Surely the UK market would be receptive to this product.

    • Probably because they don’t think it’s worth the extra marketing expense. I think it’s a shame, but they only have so much money to gamble on Zune with. They don’t want to increase that gamble if they’re not sure it’ll pay off…

  • I do love my Zune – or rather, I love the player itself (aside from the fact that its not very good at dealing with lots of videos – one massive list with no sub-directories).

    My problem is with the dreadful, dreadful software. Not only is it a completely non-user friendly resource hog, that didn’t even let you change tags on mp3s until recently, but it has an annoying habbit of swapping video (and some music) file names for fun.

    If they sorted that out (and let it run avis, rather than wmvs) it’d be brilliant.

Comments are closed.