Contentinople - Frank Smith - News Bits: Zune Targets iTunes With Video Store

Written by Frank Smith

Tuesday, May 6. 2008 at 11:35 AM EDT 2 comments

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Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is preparing to open a TV download store for the Zune. The service will compete against iTunes for a share of the "watching last night's The Office on a handheld device" market.

Already, Microsoft has added more than 800 episodes to its Zune store. with content coming from NBC Universal , MTV Networks , and Turner. At launch, the store isn't as content-heavy as iTunes, but is expected to fill out in the coming months, says a report from Variety.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has been criticized in the past for not offering variable pricing on items in its store. Microsoft is taking a different tack by allowing companies, such as NBC, to set prices as it does with DVD sales.

Currently, TV shows will cost 160 Microsoft Points per episode or about $1.99 in grown-up money. Once more content is available, pricing is expected to vary.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Zune store is adding a new feature where users can access their friends' nine most recently played songs and nine other songs that are marked as favorites. These songs can then be copied onto their Zunes. Playback requires a $14.99-a-month subscription Microsoft's Zune Pass service.

Last quarter Apple sold 10.6 million iPods, while Microsoft has sold around 2 million Zunes total.

Elsewhere:

Gossip Girl tops the iTunes charts. The CW has stopped running full-episode streams of Gossip Girl on its site, but at the same time sales of the show have placed the program as the most downloaded show on iTunes. Content is... queen?

The video search company blinkx has launched an Advanced Media Platform, which will allow publishers to manage video search, insert advertising, and target users with relevant video.

Tags: Apple, Blinkx, Business, iPod, iTunes, Microsoft, Technology, Zune

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zuney tunes
Pete Baldwin
Rank: Sultan
Tuesday May 6, 2008 4:49:27 PM

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Last quarter Apple sold 10.6 million iPods, while Microsoft has sold around 2 million Zunes total.

i'd like to see how sales have progressed of the zune. i had heard it was picking up rather dramatically but your factoid certainly puts things into perspective.

does anyone make an ipod which is dedicated solely to playing mp3's? what if i don't want video or FM and just would rather have one rich in features for music playback? while my Sandisk "Sansa View" has some nice features - most notably seamless integration with Rhapsody-To-Go, it has some really basic shortfalls (no volume levelling, hello?) which i find really annoying... and yet it has VIDEO & FM... which i never use. doh.

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Re: zuney tunes
Frank
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Wednesday May 7, 2008 12:35:15 PM

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I like the iPod. You don't have to use the video/photo features if you don't want to and the space that these unused features take up is small. The Shuffle is just music and the Nano isn't bad either.

I see devices gaining in features as we go rather than scaling down. Who ever thought you could make a phonecall on the same thing you use to listen to music?

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