Microsoft gives birth to

Yesterday, Microsoft officially gave birth to a device that is considered "killer" of Apple iPod - the Zune portable digital music player.

Microsoft has put a lot of expectations on its ability to share music over a wireless connection, which will help Zune quickly gain popularity among consumers, even though Zune has been five years behind Apple iPod.

The world's largest software firm claims that Zune is the first step in its strategy to create a brand new portable music player. The next step in this strategy is a Zune-branded phone.

And by the end of the holiday season Microsoft will release the new Zune 30GB along with an online music service Zune Marketplace - Apple's new rival iTunes.

Microsoft's new Zune portable music player has a similar look to the Apple iPod with a round-button (round click wheel) and 3-inch display and casing in 3 different colors - black , white and gold.

However, Microsoft has not said exactly when the official Zune market will be available and the price. However, the only thing that the manufacturer claims is that the Zune will have wireless connectivity to allow users to seamlessly share images and music. This is a feature that Apple iPod does not have, so Microsoft put a lot of expectations and it.

Analysts say that Zune's wireless connectivity feature will definitely appeal to users, but the market share will be hard to increase because the market not only has Apple products but also products. products of Creative Technology and SanDisk.

' Zune is unlikely to be an' iPod killer 'but it certainly has more attractive features than Apple iPod, ' said JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg. ' But in the near future, the market share of portable digital music devices will fall into the hands of other manufacturers .'

Zune along with Xbox gaming system is part of Microsoft's strategy to expand and diversify products as its competitors are growing.

Microsoft insists it plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in production development and promote Zune despite knowing it will take several years to earn revenue.

Not easy to beat iPod?

Defeating the iPod will certainly not be an easy task as the product has accounted for more than half of the global portable digital music market, research firm NPD said.

Apple has just taken another step in the entertainment market by launching a service that allows downloading movies and TV shows directly through the iTunes service. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Zune does not yet have this feature.

Meanwhile, analysts hope that within the next few years Apple will launch a new product - expected to be an iPhone mobile phone, a product that combines digital music players and mobile phones. dynamic.

IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian said that Zune's design and features are not enough to become an iPod killer. The Zune is two points worse than the Apple iPod: first, it doesn't have a video yet, and the second is that users can't access the music service from Zune.

' Zune has a nice design but Microsoft needs to improve it before it can win a worthy position in the market .'

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