Zune Tunes In

Microsoft Corporation has announced their plan to release the all new Zune, a campaign to blend social networking with the sharing of digital music, next month.

Experts say that the idea is a good one, but the chances of Microsoft beating out Apple Inc.’s iPod and iTunes duo are slim to none. Chris Swenson of the NPD Group said, "Microsoft can't just do something a little bit different, they have to match the experience of iTunes, and find ways to surpass it. But they're not even close now to what Apple and iTunes have."

Three different Zune players, paired with a community site called Zune Social, will allow users to automatically share their current playlists with friends using what Microsoft is calling a Zune-to-Zune Social sync.

The online site will be dependent on user-made profiles called Zune cards that other Zune owners can view and play a short sample of posted songs, or buy that track off of the Zune MarketPlace online store.

Last year, Microsoft experimented with Zune and its application of wireless capabilities. The outcome was a failure because there weren’t enough people with the player to make any experimentation practical.

I think that Microsoft could have a potentially very successful product. Whereas Apple has combined the software and the player, Microsoft is adding a third element, where people will be able to share things with each other. I think the idea is great, but I’m not too sure how it will pan out. I’m curious to see how the music world and social networking world fuse together. As of right now they are very different, and I’m not sure that all social networkers will be interested in sharing music. They might see it as an elementary form of social netoworking and be turned off to participating. Microsoft needs to come up with a way to make help Zune be seen as the newest trend in the eyes of social networkers.



And, as Michael Gartenberg of JupiterResearch said, "Microsoft must find a way to grow the coolness of the Zune…This isn't a bad strategy, and at least it's found a way to differentiate from Apple."

By the end of the year, Microsoft hopes to be holding the No. 2 spot amongst its digital music rivals.

This post is in response to the article found at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138042-c,mp3players/article.html