Microsoft Sees 'Hundreds of Millions' Spent on Zune Portable Music Player By ROBERT A. GUTH Wall Street Journal
July 27, 2006 3:47 p.m. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115401956709119294.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news REDMOND, WASH. -- A Microsoft Corp. executive said that the company's newly disclosed effort to take on Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player will yield one product this year and cost "hundreds of millions of dollars" in coming years. Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft's entertainment division said that Microsoft will begin selling one device under the brand name Zune this year and will expand that with a new product line next calendar year, "as well as broadening the product lines over time." Mr. Bach's comments, made at Microsoft's annual meeting with financial analysts, follows Microsoft's confirmation last week that it's working on a portable music player to compete with Apple's wildly successful iPod. At the meeting, Mr. Bach confirmed that Microsoft is going to manage every part of the product's creation and strategy. In music devices to date, Microsoft has worked with a multiplicity of different device makers and Internet music service providers. Through that approach Microsoft has failed to dent the market share of Apple's device. "Microsoft will be involved in the hardware and the software and the service." Mr. Bach said. As with many of Microsoft's new product efforts, Mr. Bach emphasized that Zune is a long-term bet. "It is something that is going to take time. This is not a six month initiative," he said. "This is something that is going to be a three-, four-, five-year investment." He said that the effort will cost "hundreds of millions of dollars in investment over time." Mr. Bach, who also manages Microsoft's Xbox videogame business, was tapped last year to help rework Microsoft's approach to other entertainment industries including music and movies. He said that a key part of the strategy of Zune is to make it tie closely with Microsoft's other entertainment products, including the Xbox, Media Center, personal computer software for consumer PCs. Building connections among those products "is a way that we are going to differentiate ourselves," he said. "It's a dramatically better experience than you have from just a portable music player." Separately, the company also confirmed at the meeting that it sees no impediments ot its plans to launch Windows Vista later this year. Kevin Johnson, co-president of the division that includes Windows, said the company has test versions of the operating system in the hands of millions of users. So far, nothing has turned up to keep the product from shipping to business customers in November and to consumers in January as planned, Mr. Johnson said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
