Microsoft's Zune music player to ship in time for holidays. Rival to iPod features wireless technology, FM tuner ... will hit U.S. retailers in time for the busy holiday season, with a 30GB digital media player and an online media marketplace the first to reach consumers ... similar to what Apple already offers, with a couple of exceptions. In addition to allowing users to play music, videos and photos on a screen, the Zune player will include wireless technology and a built-in FM radio tuner. So far, iPods lack either radio tuners or built-in wireless technology.

Zune's wireless technology will allow users to share songs, playlists and photos between Zune devices, Microsoft said. A user can listen to any song received up to three times over three days, after which the listener must buy it from the Zune Marketplace to continue listening.
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If other attempts to unseat the iPod are any indication, Microsoft will have a tough road ahead. Recently, Dell Inc. stopped selling its DJ Ditty music player on its Web site and ended development of its own line of music players.

Still, iPod market share has fallen in the past year, leaving room for rivals in the market. At one point the music player had more than 80% market share by analysts estimates, but the latest reports give the iPod a little over 70% market share.

The Zune has 802.11 networking built in and you can send a song to your friend ... The goal, obviously, is to sell music. However, we could also conceivably see this as a MySpace-like network of users who pop music to each other with giddy abandon and infect others with their musical stylings on the train (perhaps a sandwich board that says “I’ll Send My New HARDCORE RAP Single to Your Zune. Talk to me. Please?”) Once you get back home you can connect to the Zune Marketplace - and presumably an artists home page - where you can learn more and buy music.

Clearly all the data isn’t in yet, but this definitely pushes the MP3 player out of the pocket and into the realm of social networking. The question, obviously, is what is Apple going to do about this and, as a corrallary, how low Apple and Creative shares are selling as we speak? Perhaps MS could create a “Zune Inside” logo for those guys? Or maybe fund a halfway house for underconnected MP3 players?

Years ago people got a kick out of beaming Palm cards, now Microsoft hope Zune owners will wirelessly share music, playlists and pictures. It’s not music-sharing nirvana: song sharing is limited to homemade recordings and full-length “sample tracks of select songs.” Users can listen to any song that’s received up to three times over three days — gack, more exploding media — then can flag a desired song on the device and buy it from the Zune Marketplace.

Two days after Apple refreshed and lowered the prices on its iPod line (and thereby wrought havoc on Microsoft's launch plans), Microsoft today announced its own 30 Gigabyte Zune music player.

Source: http://www.msn.com

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