Report: Microsoft’s New Zune 2 Music Player To Be Revealed on Tuesday

Authored by Jay Baage on October 1, 2007 - 2:40pm.

Microsoft will launch the second generation of its seemingly ill-conceived Zune music players in Redmond on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to several reports online. The new Flash-based Zunes are rumored to be smaller, video capable, and include real Wi-Fi and higher storage than competing products.

According to BetaNews, sources close to the situation say both Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Design and Development chief J Allard will be on hand for the event. The company is also expected to give details at the event of a new Zune community site that will launch in beta, and Microsoft's own line of first party accessories.

The new players are expected to be available beginning in November and up to 2.4 million next-generation Zunes will be manufactured during the 2007 holiday season.

My Take: While Microsoft is doing the right thing in being in the digital music race, their Zune-products have so far not been anywhere near as sexy as Apple’s iPods. Even the geeks are making fun of them: The limited WiFi capability, the design, the Zune music store's payment system and so on.

So far Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s had not been very impressive in his arguments for why people should buy a Zune instead of an iPod or iPhone (see this article). It will be interesting to see if the executives at Microsoft can help turn the tide with the second generation products. The odds are against them.

And when will we see a ZunePhone?

Joakim Baage