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A Few More Details About International Release


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Old 05-31-2009, 01:30 AM
Adam Krebs
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Default A Few More Details About International Release
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/may/27/microsoft-zune-marketplace' target='_blank'>http://www.guardian.co.uk/technolog...une-marketplace</a><br /><br /></div><p>"<em>Up until now, the portable media player and its online iTunes Store equivalent, Zune Marketplace, have only been available in the US. From early Autumn, however, a revised service, Zune Video, will be available on Xbox Live in the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Spain (with more countries coming aboard later). Xbox 360 owners in these territories will be able to go online and access video content and play it via their console. A variety of access options will be available, including instant streaming, download to rent and download to own. However, no Zune portable music players will be launched outside of the US - at least not yet. This is about the online service only.</em>"</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1243731028.usr495.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="500" /></p><p>It's still fairly difficult to determine what Microsoft's strategy around an international release will be. So far they've been tight-lipped about their specific plans with regards to launching the Zune services outside of North America or Western Europe, and even the Zune HD doesn't look like it'll make it outside of the US. This seems like a poor strategy, and one I really hope they fix before the HD launches in the fall.</p>
 
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Old 05-31-2009, 05:22 AM
batkinson001
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ugh again with giving us canadians the old F-BOMB. M$ should seriously release the hd everywhere. the whole 'US only' thing is getting quite old, Americans aren't the only people on this damned planet! GIVE US THE ZUNE HD EH!
 
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Old 05-31-2009, 08:22 AM
Adam Krebs
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Originally Posted by batkinson001 View Post
M$ should seriously release the hd everywhere. the whole 'US only' thing is getting quite old, Americans aren't the only people on this damned planet!
I'm with ya man. I'd love to see the Zune catch on, and for that to happen it needs to be available worldwide. I'd really like to know what's keeping them.

On a side note, I saw an article in the New York Times a couple weeks ago about the difficulties of setting up web services (esp. video) in other countries with the difficulties of monetizing the ads to a different locale. It shed a new light on the reasons Hulu hasn't launched internationally yet, and hopefully why the HD should.
 
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Old 05-31-2009, 11:08 AM
Stinger
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A European release would more than double the Zune's potential market overnight. Surely it's not that hard for music licensing at the very least. There's plenty of other companies who've managed to agree deals.

This is sad news.
 
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Old 05-31-2009, 07:56 PM
ACE
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I am really perplexed as to the strategy that MS seems to be having going internationally. I mean, look at the Canadian release still yet to be complete with a Zune Marketplace. Does licensing really take that long? I understand there can be some issues, but seriously - does it take that long? It's frustrating and it makes it look like MS has no real strategy, or they're changing their strategy all the time.

And having HD radio in the ZuneHD now completely confines it to the US unless they want to ship a model with anolog radio in them instead.
 
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Old 05-31-2009, 09:40 PM
Jason Dunn
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And having HD radio in the ZuneHD now completely confines it to the US unless they want to ship a model with anolog radio in them instead.
To be clear, the Zune HD does have a regular FM radio receiver in it.
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Old 05-31-2009, 09:39 PM
Jason Dunn
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Originally Posted by Stinger View Post
Surely it's not that hard for music licensing at the very least. There's plenty of other companies who've managed to agree deals.
Yeah, that's the thing that really baffles me - from the outside looking in, it looks like Microsoft is doing NOTHING to get the Zune launched outside the USA. But that's definitely not the case - so the question is, why is it so hard?

I have a theory: Apple managed to blaze a relatively quick trail in terms of having music stores available in many markets all over the world. Microsoft has the money and legal muscle to do the same, so why can't they? My theory is that when Apple first started, no one thought the iTunes music store would be such a raging success, and now that the record labels and politicians who make intellectual property laws understand the power of digital distribution, they're holding Microsoft over the hot coals to get them to give up more than Apple or anyone else has.

I've never heard a single explanation for why Microsoft hasn't been able to launch the Zune Marketplace in Canada after a year of trying for instance...it just doesn't make sense.
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