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September 28, 2006

rivals

Once in a full Zune…

Posted Sep. 28, ’06, 8:50 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Rivals

Browning a ZuneWe know you’ve just been dying for more on the Zune, Microsoft’s forthcoming iPod-maimer, so who are we to disappoint? Microsoft dropped some official specs on the music player today, including a price and a release date.

But first, a message from Microsoft. They want you to know that they’re so committed to selling the Zune, so crazy about it, that they’re going to sell it at a loss. That’s right, Microsoft’s going to take one for you guys. So you better buy a Zune. Or Microsoft will be very, very unhappy with you.

The 30GB music player will go on sale November 14th for a low, low iPod-beating price of $249.99…wait a second. That’s the same exact price that the 30GB iPod costs. Huh. Spooky.

If you want to buy songs from Mirosoft’s online service, they’ll cost you $0.99 a track…sort of. Microsoft has decided to eschew these “dollars” that all the kids are using, in favor of a currency they cleverly call “points.” The twist is that a point = 1.25 cents; Microsoft’s charging 79 points for a song, so if you do the math, you’ll see it works out to 98.75 cents…or 99 cents. Still, as Ars Technica points out, it’s a great way of obscuring the actual cost of things.

Also, Gizmodo has a full list of all the content that will come preloaded on the Zune, pretty much none of which I’ve ever heard of. But I’m hardly “hip to the jive” of kids nowadays.


1 Comments

Kelmon said:

OK, here's the thing that I don't understand. How the hell does this thing sell at a LOSS? Are Microsoft being taken to the cleaners by their suppliers? Or is Apple better able to negotiate prices that allow them to generate a substantial PROFIT on every iPod sold? Are we supposed to believe that this brick is going to be containing higher quality components, or is this simply the cost of the idiot WiFi? Personally, I can't see much of a redeeming feature of Zune v1 and I'll be doing my thing for Microsoft's profits by not buying one.

I refuse to comment on the subject of a points scheme for pricing goods aside to say that narcotics must surely have been involved when that decision was made.

September 28, 2006 10:32 AM

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