14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Omerta extends to Zune as well. Made available in 2006, and right on track to the modest milestone of 1 million devices shipped by mid 2007, Microsoft's Zune digital media player is yet in is infancy. Microsoft hinted at all the great things to come to Zune, including communication capabilities, but details were never developed past this stage. This has changed, as a Microsoft employee has spilled the beans on Microsoft's plans for Zune in 2007.
According to Zune Scene, Microsoft plans to make available both Zune 2.0 and Flash Zune by the end of this year. The actual release date has not been made public at this time. The two brand new Zune devices will have fresh marketing names that also remain undisclosed.
Zune 2.0 is designed to be the successor of the first digital media player device from Microsoft. Among the changes that it will introduce, there will be a larger hard drive, but also a thinner design.
However, Microsoft will apparently focus on an iPod Nano and Shuffle killer. Microsoft will make available in excess of 2.4 million Zune 2.0 and Flash Zune devices. The 2007 generation of Zune is scheduled to hit the shelves ahead of the holiday season. Approximately 1.8 million digital players will be Flash Zune devices. Microsoft is also investing in Dao Min China in building a facility that will fabricate the next generation Zune, taking the hardware out of Toshiba's hands.
Flash Zune will deliver video and WiFi capabilities, and obviously will have a flash based hard drive.