The FCC Tells Us About the New Flash-Based Zunes

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/02/microsofts-4gb-8gb-flash-based-zunes-revealed-by-fcc/

Ah, you've just got to love the FCC and the way their public disclosure process ruins the secrets of many a company. Interestingly enough I've been told (so this could be false) that there's some sort of check-box the company can select when submitting their product to have it NOT appear on the public site...yet no one seems to do it. Apparently some things have been withheld though.

At any rate, these drawings confirm what we already know: there's a 4 GB and 8 GB Flash-based Zune coming from Microsoft. We were all about 90% sure, but we now know that the devices will also have WiFi built-in (coming from a Marvel 88W8686 chipset)  - so it looks like the social is coming to these new Zunes as well. The question is, will the WiFi on these new Zunes do anything more than the last Zunes? I sure hope so, or these products are going to be hammered on as heavily as the last generation.

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/02/microsofts-4gb-8gb-flash-based-zunes-revealed-by-fcc/

Ah, you've just got to love the FCC and the way their public disclosure process ruins the secrets of many a company. Interestingly enough I've been told (so this could be false) that there's some sort of check-box the company can select when submitting their product to have it NOT appear on the public site...yet no one seems to do it. Apparently some things have been withheld though.

At any rate, these drawings confirm what we already know: there's a 4 GB and 8 GB Flash-based Zune coming from Microsoft. We were all about 90% sure, but we now know that the devices will also have WiFi built-in (coming from a Marvel 88W8686 chipset)  - so it looks like the social is coming to these new Zunes as well. The question is, will the WiFi on these new Zunes do anything more than the last Zunes? I sure hope so, or these products are going to be hammered on as heavily as the last generation.

[Rocco Augusto]

Nice. Even though they looked pretty ugly in the spy shots, I'm starting to get excited!

[MarxMarvelous]

Matches the rumors exactly, but I'm still a little surprised they didn't one-up the nano in this category with a 16GB version.

Then again, maybe their market studies showed that 4/8 are still the sweet spots. After all, Apple didn't see the need to upgrade either.

Regardless, the big question is price. Let's hope they undercut the equivalent nanos by at least $25.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by MarxMarvelous

...but I'm still a little surprised they didn't one-up the nano in this category with a 16GB version.

Same here. I think it's really sucky that they didn't do a 16 GB version. They can't just MATCH Apple, they have to BEST them if they're going to steal any market share away.

[Rocco Augusto]

Using my fiance and her friends as the basis of all of my understandings of people who are not very tech savvy, the average person probably has less than a couple GB's of music. I think this is one of the main reasons why the iPod Nano's are such hot sellers (the old versions, I'm not sure aobut the new ones).

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Rocco Augusto

Using my fiance and her friends as the basis of all of my understandings of people who are not very tech savvy, the average person probably has less than a couple GB's of music.

Yup, agreed - most people have less than 4 GB of music, so the 4 GB Zune makes sense. But what about people with more than 8 GB of music they want to take with them, but who want a small and light Flash player? Or photos, videos, etc? I know that Microsoft needs a 4 GB Zune, but I really think they should have jumped to 16 GB instead of stopping at 8 GB.

[David Tucker]

I dunno, I guess choice is good but if the 80 GB player is as similar in size to the flash player as it appears...then I don't see where its a huge issue.

I could see myself getting a 4 GB & an 80 GB. I don't want to use my nice player for the gym and ruin another Zune's screen