Microsoft has now officially confirmed both launch date and price for its first portable media player. Zune has caused quite a riot the last couple of months and the first to put their hands on the player will be the Americans, just as expected. On November 14 Zune will be launched in the USA, in due time for the Christmas shopping. The price will be $249.99, most likely €249 when it finds it way over the Atlantic. This means that Zune will be 99 cents more expensive than Apple’s 30GB iPod. Something that proves Microsoft has great faith in its player’s features, as there were earlier speculations for further price cuts to counter Apple’s new pricing.
At the same time as Zune arrives, Zune Marketplace will go live as Microsoft’s answer to iTunes Store as you can buy and download music through the application. Either through regular impulse purchases or through a subscription system where you get access to millions of songs for a fixed amount a month.
The price a single song will be 79 Microsoft Points which is Microsoft’s own currency at Xbox Live and Zune Marketplace. This is up to par with the competing online stores.
Microsoft doesn’t want to put any pressure on the buyers though so there is no need to hit Zune Marketplace directly and start looking for material as the player namely comes with a whole lot of music and music videos.
Microsoft has in its press release published details about the material which comes along but also about the loads of accessories which will be released alongside of Zune. Now we just want to know when and if the player will come to Europe and at what price.
