“Microsoft Corp. chose Toshiba Corp. to manufacture its Zune digital music player, a device that will compete with Apple Computer Inc.’s market-dominating iPod,” Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg.
Bass reports, “Toshiba, which currently sells music and video players with Microsoft’s Windows software, yesterday filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for approval of the device. Microsoft spokeswoman Denise Gocke confirmed the filing and Toshiba’s role in the project.”
Bass reports, “The Redmond, Washington-based company plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years in a bid to dent Apple’s 77 percent share of the $4 billion U.S. market for digital music players. ‘Toshiba makes a very high-quality product,’ said Rob Enderle, an analyst at the Enderle Group in San Jose, California. He called the decision ‘a good choice’ and said Toshiba’s Gigabeat music player is often reviewed as one of the few devices whose hardware is equal to or better than the iPod.”
Bass reports, “”The FCC filing included a photo of the device, which is white with a black-trimmed screen and a black-trimmed, white scroll wheel. Zune will have a 30-gigabyte hard drive, a three-inch screen, and be available in three colors, black, white and brown, according to the Toshiba filing.”
Full article here.
And, so, it’s confirmed. The Zune, or as it’s already known in France, “Z’Brick,” is made by Toshiba and is the size of a small convenience store. Oh, and that “white scroll wheel” mentioned by Bloomberg is not a scroll wheel at all, it’s only a four-way button that just happens to be round. You know, to look like Apple’s product in an effort to fool the ignorant. As usual. Apple’s patent pending iPod Click Wheel is patent-pending for a reason, you know. The fact that the brick-like Zune comes in brown is considered by many analysts to be highly appropriate. And, if Rob Enderle thinks it’s all good, then you know it’s very, very bad. How bad? Even we expected more from Microsoft.
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That thing looks thicker than a 1G iPod. Who’s pocket is that going to fit in?
“The fact that the brick-like Zune comes in brown is considered by many analysts to be highly appropriate.”
LMAO!!
Macnut222, I believe it is meant to go into the back of your pants, just on the inside though, and center it.
THIS MUST BE A JOKE???
Rob Enderle, an analyst at the Enderle Group in San Jose, California. He called the decision ‘a good choice’ and said Toshiba’s Gigabeat music player is often reviewed as one of the few devices whose hardware is equal to or better than the iPod.”
Good old Rob the Knob, talking trash as usual
For the 1st time ever MS has to play being way behind on the score board against a mighty competitor and where MS will not be able to leverage its OS market share.
Can’t wait to see how this ends. I’d like to see how much money MS is going to throw at this.
Not to be confused with the tacky faux brick material known as Z-Brick; http://www.z-brick.com/
Wait, come to think of it…
A big hit that will divert attention from unsightly cracks of overweight plummers when stored in their back pocket!
….All in all it’s just a….
….nother BRICK IN THE WALL.
Brown? What kind of color choice is that? Black, good, White, good……but Brown? Red, Pink, Green? Those are better choices. Brown…..
Geeze. Stupid. Absolutely stupid.
Oh, shit. I mean, oh, Zune.
Microsoft should pull the plug on this immediately. A repackaged Gigabeat is going to do about as well against Apple’s iPod as… well… a Toshiba Gigabeat.
Microsoft sucks.
It connects to your PC via it’s cutting edge technology serial port.
To Do List:
1. Sharp stick ✓
2. March on Redmond
3. Ballmer’s head
I guess MS will spin the brick-like Zune as “rugged” vs. the iPod being “fragile” and “too small”…lol
Hey, it’ll work too. As it is, fuctards see the iPod nano and lament that “it’s too small” and “i’ll break it” or “I’ll lose it”…
Now, if it’s going to be a brick, it should at least do everything the Newton did…
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” -John Keats & Mary Poppins
No joy in a Zune.
I wonder about Zune’s packaging? Time once again to review how MS would redesign the iPod packaging:
Jeg-
They did a good job coming from nowhere with the Xbox. They didn’t unseat Sony of course, but the system isn’t doing too badly either.
I know they were able to leverage the OS in the crushing of Netscape, but don’t forget Netscape was the untouchable king of the hill.
It’s funny how people talk about GM and Ford when trying to describe Apple’s 4% market share takeover of the 95% Windows world.
Yet when someone tries to take on iPod and iTMS, no one mentions GM and Ford. Everyone then seems happy in the La La Land of market domination.
I’m a 3 iPod kind of guy with a huge investment in iTMS stuff, “I ain’t switchen.” It’s just funny to see the exact same people drone on about the importance of a 4% market share then in the same breathe laugh at a measly 25% market share for music. An arguably larger market than computers to boot.
88
eureka, i’ve got it. steve looked so haggard and tired at the WWDC because he saw some spy photos of the zune and stayed up all night laughing his ass off!
i think i just lost a couple of pounds myself just now.
thanks, microsoft and toshiba!
oh, and i’ll have you know, in france it will be called z’merd.
Would someone in San Jose go to The Enderle “Group” headquarters and take some snapshots? I’d love to see this thing for what it is. Rob and his dog sitting at a 4 year old PC.
Don’t worry about a thing!
Apple has been expecting this and is going to pull another “Nano move” just when the “Brick” is starting to get rolling.
For those who don’t remmeber the “Nano move”, it was Steve Jobs nifty little innovative trick to replace the colored iPod Mini’s just when competition was starting to heat up.
The cause of Creative’s huge losses and Dell’s exit from the MP3 player market.
Microsoft is going to try the brute force attack with this “brick”, but Apple is going to suddenly make all products that look like a video iPod, including the “brick”, obsolete by introducing a new product.
It’s going to have a 16:9 aspect ratio screen, I can tell you that for sure right now.
Secret Agent Man,
Do we fscking sound the least bit worried to you?
The only thing we’re worried about is having some doofus drop one of these piece of shit Z’Bricks on our feet.
Is it feasible that Apple would allow it’s new allies at Creative to make their players compatible with the iTunes Music Store just to screw MicroSoft? I know they’re making the big profits from the iPods, but might not a small loss in sales to Creative be worth the added grief it would inflict on MS and their Zuney-Toons player? Just an idea.
My Toshiba laptop – at work of course – is total crap. We all hate the thing. A friend of mine bought a Toshiba laptop- poor lad – and deeply regrets it.
Looks like they didn’t spend much time coming up with that thing, as always copying but too quickly and badly.
Creative isn’t going to be making any new players unless Steve Jobs lets them do it the way he tells them to do it. Creative isn’t Apple’s ally, it’s Apple’s bitch.
Apple’s doesn’t need any help. Look at that POS Zune from Microsoft. It’s DOA.
Ballmer won’t last 12 months.
To quote M.A.D.:
Macnut222, I believe it is meant to go into the back of your pants, just on the inside though, and center it.
I think this is a picture of one of those
” rel=”nofollow”>brown Zune’s, in a third party travel case.
From the picture I can’t really tell if Segway is involved in it’s production, but it looks like it might catch on.
Steve made the Creative lawsuit legitimate. Paid up $100 million. Gets his 100 mil back if Creative finds a bigger fish to fry.
Hummmmmm. Where is there a bigger fish to fry. Oh, yeah! That would be them copy cats at Microsloft who are currently doing a quick and dirty copy of the iPod.
Oh, that means Creative is gonna sue their asses to hell and back.
Steve gets his 100 mil back, Bill Gates pays Creative big time.
Apple Wins!
Then, just for the hell of it, just for the fun of it, maybe Steve gives Creative access to the iTunes store. Brings Creative into the fold, shoves a big one up Gates ass. Year from now Zune quietly dies just like the Dell shit died the other day.
The pig is happy.
Jerry T
Xbox is a money losing product. Yes it is pretty good but it is a very difficult market with Nintendo and Sony there. MS will need to gain market share and then be profitable – no small task
You can’t compare Netscape with Apple. Apple is much better capitalized. Netscape was a tiny company making a product that was free or became free when MS entered the market. No one saw them as unbeatable. Apple has built an ecosystem around iPod/i-Tunes that is going to take innovation and a lot of money to disrupt. MS has never been good at innovating. Sure Apple could lose their momentum as it did with the Mac in the 80s/90s but I doubt Apple would make the same mistakes again.
Apple knows that OSX will never have the Windows market share. Apple is focusiong on growth to continue to gain developers support and profitability in developed nations. Apple knows that they lost the PC wars but it doesn’t mean that the mac can continue to be a great profitable channel for it.
I did not understand your last comment
Microsoft spokeswoman Denise Gocke:
“We believe in inking this deal with Toshiba, we will be the world’s number one supplier of the Toshiba Gigabeat S product.”
“It should be clear to everyone that our re-branding of their product, coupled with our loss leading ability in first the xBox, and now Zune, will lead the way to following others by being years behind.
I still marvel how much press Enderle gets. I hear him on the radio, I read him in print…he’s everywhere. I would really like to read some facts about the Enderle Group. And photos. He’s got some great connections as I assume that it’s just him in lonely office park. I’m not hating on the guy, I just think it’s amazing how much press he gets. His analysis is rarely insightful, but we all know that.
One more thing:
A brown Zune?
BROWN?
You’re shitt’in me right?
No kidding, BROWN?
Fusk, it’s a Z-turd!
Too good to believe!
Look a bit like a Newton to me…
Its Origami repackaged as Zune.
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M$ marketing idea as usual.
The lack of the click-wheel instantly kills all iPod competitors in my eyes. There is no better alternative.
One day Ballmer entered the men’s room stall just after Enderle had exited. Suddenly the exclamation could be heard… “Zune!”
But don’t underestimate the amount of cash M$ is willing to lose or throw away to buy market share (can you say, “XBox”?) also never, never underestimate the stupidity of the US consumer to fall for crap like this from M$…
Wow, the Creative Vision M is better. Of course, I don’t expect the zune to stay brown. That’s just the test prototype. Everyone knows it’ll come in a variety of translucent plastic colors.
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hell I’m fat and ugly, make it like me
Cripes! Is that a SCSI cable that it’s hooked up to? Can’t you just hear the MS fanboy’s and their “what part of prototype do you mactards not understand’ excuse for this pig? LOL!
I’m not surprised Enderle likes BROWN given the amount of sh*t this ANAList dishes out.
Give me an ENEMA BAG!!!!!!!!!!
For the 1st time ever MS has to play being way behind on the score board against a mighty competitor and where MS will not be able to leverage its OS market share.
^^^
*ahem* Like the xbox?
ok, how long before some creative person creates a parody website showing people happily listening/jogging/dancing/etc with a zune-logo’ed brick around their neck or strapped to their arm (wearing brown earbuds, of course)?
— just like all those “Sidetalking” photos that surfaced when the ridiculous Nokia N-Gage was first announced?
Heard it’s shrink-wrapped with Preparation H.
Or as JEG alluded, it’s just another “brick in the wall.” As in the crumbling edifice.
That thing is an embarrasment.
Anybody notice all the Microsoft trolls are keeping their embarassed heads right down these days?
One of them putting their head above the parapet here will have it blown off in 10 seconds flat!!
Go Apple. You got them well and truly on the run…
And every one they make but don’t sell will be another brick OUT of the wall that’s become Microshite.
Notice the antenna? It looks like a walkie talkie.
Looks like Balmer just shit a brick.
“I believe it is meant to go into the back of your pants, just on the inside though, and center it.”
Oh crap!
Jerry T.: “They did a good job coming from nowhere with the Xbox.”
…uh, if you remember your Apple history, the Xbox is the remade version of the Apple Pippin that was taken away after Apple killed the product and the team members absorbed into Microsuck.
“I think this is a picture of one of those brown Zune’s, in a third party travel case.” Rocket Power, or how DoodieMan got his start…..snicker.
“also never, never underestimate the stupidity of the US consumer to fall for crap like this”…as a person who works within Retail, this is an understatement. Look at all the loosers who fall for the, “Windows is user friendly” line. To reinforce this, there are people out there that think (and believe) that Paris Hilton is a respectable person and a role model. ….HURK, gag, HURLLLLL!
Now what is truly interesting is that I understand the cable connections on the bottom of the device, for syncronizing, then the audio cable that is plugged into the top….but what the f#ck is that “dangle” that is on the right side?!?!? It’s orange with two spearations with two white “thingys” that cannot be identified. Uhhh, I am now scared.
MasterMacNikon
BROWN is so utterly appropriate.
Got to love their fashion sense.
Look again at the picture…I don’t know which brick looks worse.. the Zune-ditty or the actual laptop it is connected to. That thing looks 3 inches thick. My Macbook puts that contraption to shame and I can imagine the next version of the iPod and nano just driving in the stake. It should be called the Zumbarrassment.
From the article:
“The device will enable a user to stream music to four other devices at one time so friends can listen together.”
Um, when my friends and I want to listen to the same music we use these new fangled things called “speakers”.
Once again Microsoft is presenting a solution to a problem that does not exist.
MDN Magic Word: “through” as in Mircrosoft is “through” in the mp3 player game before they even begin.
Enderle… what a tool. If he says it’s good, you know for sure it’s steaming cowflop.
A few months ago I was writing a hatemail to Enderle in Mozilla’s Thunderbird email program. When I spellchecked, it flagged “Enderle” and said, “Do you mean ‘genderless?'”
I laughed my ass off! And then I looked closer. Sure enough, “enderle” is fully-contained in “genderless.” Rob Genderless! LOL!!
MW types — it takes all…
The end of the OS era is nigh
This brick needs more straw (obscure Exodus reference).
MS Press Release:
C’mon kids! Our super cool Zune is preloaded with Johnny Mathis, Perry Como and John Tesh!
I think M$ is just presenting this brick to throw everyone off balance. They show some crap, make everyone laugh, THEN come out with this brilliant, cool-looking, incredible player.
Sure…
Can you stack them up with mortar ? like : “look at my new 5’000’000 GB MP3player WALL” ! =)
Microsoft confirms leftover brick-like Zunes to be eaten by Ballmer.
I just wish Apple’s next iPod is somewhat close to this design:
C’mon Apple, you can do it.
Wow, I guess Microsoft if going to be sh*tting brown bricks.
>A big hit that will divert attention from unsightly cracks of overweight plummers when stored in their back pocket!>
The ‘B’ in plumbers, stands for brick.
MW–choice–as in, spelling correctly is a choice.
This thing is going to be HOT in Japan, but a non-starter in the US.
http://www.zune.com.br/flash/zune.htm
http://www.aros.org/documentation/developers/zune-application-development.php#what-is-zune
Cue the lawyers.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33244
Cue the fluffer.
The thing about trolls and Zune is that we all have iPods already. And we like them
You people are morons. Those photos are from the FCC certification lab, and those antennas and big-ass wires are from the testing equipment they use to measure a device’s EM interference.
But hey- those are technical details that most Mac users couldn’t ever hope to understand- after all until last year Apple said the average user was too dumb to comprehend a mouse with more than one button.
Mr./Ms./Dr. morons:
OK, so the aerial and No. 4 AWG cables are FCC components used for testing purposes only. That still doesn’t explain why this thing is as thick as some telephone books I’ve seen. However, since you seem intimately aware of the particulars of Zune development, perhaps you will also share a few specs with us. I would like to know the precise size and weight of this thing, as well as its expected battery life. I’m sure that answering these questions would boost your credibility and send shock waves through Cupertino. Also, if you post a few photos this would be great.
I wouldn’t get too complacent thinking that all Mac users aren’t able to comprehend mice with more than one button. A lot of us use mice and track balls with more than one button, really. Nah, just kidding, I didn’t know mice came with buttons, really. Thank for the tip, really.
They had to go to Enderle for his opinion? You’ve got to be kidding! Enderle is the biggest fucking farse in the universe; a self-proclaimed “analyst.” He is nothing but a dog-fucking dicklick.
BrooklynNYC:
That’s why New Yorkers never get any respect. I don’t know if you like this guy, Enderle, or not. You New Yorkers never come out and say anything directly. You people use words that obscure what you really feel emotionally deep inside. By the way, what’s your opinion of Ralph Nagin?
===
But hey- those are technical details that most Mac users couldn’t ever hope to understand- after all until last year Apple said the average user was too dumb to comprehend a mouse with more than one button.
===
Something like Windows users thinking Internet Explorer is The Internet.
Or like PC users saying things like “The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things.”
Hey ahole. The WWW and world’s first web browser was written on a NeXT computer, which used the same OS Mac OS X is based on.
Back when windows looked like this:
NeXT looked like this:
Note the gray interface, X fro close button and other things Windows later ripped off for Win95 many years later…
…Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXTcube in 1991 to create the first web browser and web server, the beginning of the World Wide Web as it is known today. Also, in the early 1990s, John Carmack used a NeXTcube to build two of his pioneering games: Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
We killed the floppy, ushered in the mouse, trackball, trackpad, FireWire, USB, killed SCSI & Serial, have always had sound and graphics cards built-in…on and on.
The NeXT and Mac DOMINATE progress while your shitstained Windows OS is an embarrassment.
PERIOD.
hey !!!!!!!
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Don’t forget that most of the prototypes are always hidden (like cars) under another packaging, not really the final one, usually this packaging is just a box (transparent from a FCC interferences point of view).
This may be just an FCC test, not the final retail packaging and also a leaked photo just to test the waters with the design and form factor.
Look at the crash test cars, their design and captors are not the one you’re driving.
I’m not religious but I just pray for that thing to be really brown
vive Z’SHIT !!!
the Zune is doomed and will be flushed down the toilet.
This site says it best:
http://www.microsoftshitbrick.com