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The pixels were barely cool from the Zune 2 announcement press releases, when Microsoft named Rick Thompson as the new head of the Zune business reporting to J Allard. Thompson is currently the corporate vice president of the Windows Live Advertising and Monetization Platforms, but he is an old Allard crony:
Today, if you check out the bio Web page for J Allard (of Xbox and Zune fame and currently Corporate Vice President of Design and Development for the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division), you’ll notice that the usually “very smooth” Allard is sporting dreadlocks and holding a Sony PSP. It’s all a result of losing a bet as he explains. Hat tip to Patrick Klepek at 1up.com who’ll retain the spiffy photo and the explanation long after it disappears from the Microsoft site.
Bryan Lee, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Entertainment Business, who in December 2005 took over “as head of a new entertainment business charged with overseeing the company’s growing digital efforts in music, television and video,” has decided to move on:
A senior Microsoft executive who oversaw the launch of its Zune digital music player plans to leave the company, the world’s largest software maker said on Wednesday.
Bryan Lee, corporate vice president at Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, also played a critical role in shaping the Xbox game console business and the introduction of its Internet Protocol television software.
Lee is a key deputy of Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division. J Allard, a rising star within Microsoft and one of the early Xbox leaders, will now take full responsibility for the Zune business.
Lee plans to leave the company in the next several weeks to pursue personal interests, Microsoft said.
It could be a variety of things of course, but the natural inclination is to view this as a rearrangement of the deck chairs after HMS Zune clipped the iPod iceberg.
Update: Speaking of which, here’s alarming news from Microsoft’s Zune Insider:
If you have a Zune that isn’t skipping (which, truth be told, is the majority of owners), move along, nothing to see here, move along. But if the content from ZMP is skipping on your device, I want to tell you that the team is aware, and is working on it.
Update 2/2: Antone Gonsalves at InformationWeek:
In other executive shuffling, Joe Belfiore, VP of Windows Media Center, and Enrique Rodriguez, VP of Microsoft’s TV Division, who both reported to Lee, will now report to Bach.
Microsoft’s Zune Delivers Connected Music and Entertainment Experience:
Marking the next big milestone for its Connected Entertainment vision, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled details of the first products to be released under its Zune™ brand. Designed around the principles of sharing, discovery and community, Zune will create new ways for consumers to connect and share entertainment experiences. The Zune experience centers around connection — connection to your library, connection to friends, connection to community and connection to other devices.
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Available this holiday season in the United States, Zune includes a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: black, brown and white.Every Zune device creates an opportunity for connection. Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.
Zune makes it easy to find music you love — whether it’s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Easily import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.
To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.
There’s also a list of three Microsoft accessory packs for car, home, and travel and the promise of more accessories from third party manufacturing partners.
Frankly, this seems anticlimactic in that it merely confirms the existing buzz and there’s nothing on pricing of hardware or content, but at last there’s an explanation of the wireless sharing feature. More details at the Zune Virtual Pressroom.
Update: My gosh, the box is brown - since the link isn’t working, scroll to the bottom here.
Update 2: Microsoft’s Cesar Menendez has more including a list of bloggers that got a special Zune preview and will be providing reviews today.
Update 3: Movie downloads and a Zune phone are coming later.
There’s a Zune interface video here and Paul Thurrott has some photo galleries.
You can import MP3 and Windows Media files, but “Rumors that the company would pay to replace a user’s iTunes store purchases with Zune-compatible tracks are not true, Microsoft said Thursday. “ You can transfer CD tracks ripped to iTunes (i.e. AAC format) however.
As for the sharing feature:
“I made a song. I own it. How come, when I wirelessly send it to a girl I want to impress, the song has 3 days/3 plays?” Good question. There currently isn’t a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can’t tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding.
Engadget interviews Microsoft CVP J. Allard who is running the Zune effort. Excerpt:
Other people just a want a system that’s end-to-end — all compatible out of the gate — and that’s what Zune does. Zune says there is no choice; you get a Zune device, you hook it up to the Zune service, and it just works.
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We’ve also found that there’s a category of customers that say, “Give me a brand experience, advertise it to me on television; I want to be part of the digital music revolution, and that solution [PlaysForSure] doesn’t work for me.” So they’re two complementary solutions — not everyones gonna want Zune and not everyone’s gonna want PlaysForSure. They’re different paths there, and we’re okay with both of them.
“We will not be undercut by Apple on price,” Matt Dublier, a Microsoft Zune product manager, told internetnews.com.
Microsoft’s comingzune.com viral marketing website has augmented the rabbit petters with flaming birds.
