Details of Next Gen Zune Surface

KMG writes "Zune Scene has got a scoop about the next generation Microsoft Zune. There will be two new models; a flash memory based and a hard drive based. Zune with HDD will be thinner and have larger storage capacity while the flash based will feature Wi-fi, video playback. So will we see another try from Microsoft to beat Apple's iPod or it will be another vain attempt from the Redmond guys."

Comments

More the Merrier

[p0tat03]

Bring it on I say. MS has shown that they can learn from their mistakes. The difference between the Xbox and 360 being a prime example. MS has the money to burn to keep making mistakes and learning from them. If that means they *eventually* make an iPod killer, so be it. The market needs more competing products, not less.

Re:More the Merrier

[shawnce]

players have caught up in terms of functionality and are able to compete on price. What currently still gives the iPod the edge is the integration with the iTMS.

The funny thing is many of the other players on the market, even when the first iPod shipped, had more (in some cases many more) end user features and/or lower pricing then the iPod. For example a couple players on the market at the time of the iPod could already play videos on screen or output to a TV/monitor. The initial thing the iPod had was FireWire (faster syncing and charging), iTunes (good GUI), and good UI (physical and graphical) with no extraneous features. With that Apple drove into the market and started to win almost immediately. When Apple opened the iPod up to Windows users it started to lose FireWire and gain minimal new features over the years.

Apple was smart to slowly and systematically bring out new capabilities without making existing functionality more complex... this drove a repurchase tread that feed unit volumes and hype which allowed the iPod and Apple to capture mindshare.

It is mindshare that makes the iPod truly successful and not any integration with iTunes Music Store.

Re:Flash seems to be the way to go....

[soft_guy]

do you really need to tote around your ENTIRE collection in your pocke For the last time .. YES I FUCKING DO!!!!!!

The reason is that with a larger collection, lets say 12,000 songs, who wants to spend the time to pick which 8,000 song to sync to the device?????

And when I want to hear something, I want to hear it!

So, I will not buy an MP3 player that doesn't hold my entire collection of music. I also want TV shows and movies. Eventually I plan to put every movie and TV show I own on DVD onto my computer and sync it to my iPod.

I like hard drives. I'm not a child - I can carry around an iPod without dropping it.

Re:Xbox 360 is a flop

[SetupWeasel]

360 is still has, by leaps and bounds, a far larger installed base than any of the other next-gen consoles. Discounting the Wii (which services a different market entirely), the 360 is selling like hotcakes in comparison to the other major competing next-gen console.

As long as you don't include its toughest competition, the XBOX 360 is doing batshit-awesome !

Re:Flash seems to be the way to go....

[bberens]

Not to beat a dead horse, but that's sort of my point. You could pick 5 different genres and record 24 contiguous hours of music from each genre on an 8GB portable music device. Contrary to the belief of several posters below super high bit-rate or lossless audio is not really appropriate for portable audio. At 128kb/s it's impossible for anyone to tell the difference between that and CD quality in your car stereo with road noise and other background. The same is said for non-noise-canceling headphones in the office. I mean sure, it's your money and your drive space so do what you want with it. People are just kidding themselves though if they think it's magically superior.

Re:"Zune Scene"?

[NeutronCowboy]

I'd venture to say that the astroturfing is about as blatant as that of the infamous Sony PSP Christmas site. Comparisons straight from a marketing handbook (break out one functionality into several bullet points, etc), professional quality product photos (complete with high quality photoshopping of screen quality), completely improbably insider stories (not a single product or marketing manager will divulge info on future products unless that's the plan).... the list goes on.

Really, really lame. If I want official info, I'd like it without the horrid writing.