Third-gen Zune to hit in 2009, make it to Europe

Seeing how long it took the Zune to make it over the northern border and into Canada, it shouldn't be any surprise that it's going to take even longer to get to Europe -- not until late next year, according to the director of Microsoft France. The wait should be worth it, though: that's when the third generation of Zunes will be released, as well as a Europe-friendly version of the Zune Marketplace. There are also some sketchy rumors that Windows Mobile 7 devices will be able to take advantage of Zune content and services, but it doesn't look like Microsoft has anything to say about that yet -- but if that goes down you know a Zune phone is right around the corner.

[Via Anything But iPod]

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2008 2:48PM]

Hi Zeus.

I think your lonely. Need a friend right? You say you tire of me but you keep coming back. I guess you like being humiliated? Please come back and tell me you understand the PPI statement.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 4:08PM]

I'm definitely getting the 3rd gen on release date! I've had a 30GB, and I now own an 8GB and 80GB, and this will probably be awesome!

[jbond Posted Mar 13th 2008 4:27PM]

What is it about all this "not available in Europe". Its a portable music player. A bit of hardware. What's the problem fer-chrisake? Oh, right, they want to copy Apple's lock in via the music download site. Like that'll ever work.

Here's an idea. How about selling an open, unrestricted worldwide PMP that's better than the iPod?

[jakem Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:47PM]

I'd have said that they haven't developed different language versions of the software yet except that it's still not available in the UK. As you mentioned, the problem's probably the lack of marketplace distribution deals. It's a shame really because it's a really nice looking product and I really like the look of the interface and the squircle. Shame it comes with it's own desktop software though - surely they could have got it to just work with WMP.

[tcc3 Posted Mar 13th 2008 4:36PM]

Lets hope they fix the software by then. Its one of the best devices on the market, but the software blows. WMP would be better, at least its fully featured and works.

Media Center sync features need ot be added as well. Given that people laud the ipods ease of use, the crappy software make it a hard sell.

Why does a software company have so much trouble with software?

[LordBunson Posted Mar 13th 2008 4:38PM]

Agreed, the older zune software was better because it had data editing. But with the new software it is quite the pain to change track details.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 6:00PM]

I love my 80GB Zune, and I am very pleased that I never bought an iCrap from Apple. The larger screen is more appealing, the zune software is much better than iTunes, and the drm-free songs are cheaper too (but I buy my mp3s from Amazon).

I don't know why everyone thinks of Apple as a company of supreme enlightenment. All my friends have iCrap, whether it is the ipod, iphone, ibook, itoiletseat. I tell them that they are sheep, flocking to a hateful company who makes their money by fooling people to think that buying their products makes them innovative and superior to the rest of the competition.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130994/article.html

[sinai Posted Mar 13th 2008 6:20PM]

i believe the term you're looking for is "iPOS," not "iCrap"

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 6:20PM]

Apple haters like you are a dime a dozen on Engadget. Am I surprised that you would buy Microsoft products blindly, just to avoid buying Apple products, and then proclaim that the Microsoft products are the best thing ever? Not really. You would buy crap in a bag if Microsoft offered it to you. You would buy it without hesitation. Because Apple is just "fooling" people into thinking their products are any good. Anybody who buys an Apple product is clearly stupid, and can't tell when they're being fooled, right? That's just how good Apple is at fooling people. You can't even tell they're doing it.

Sneaky bastards.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 6:53PM]

Zak, the same could be said about you and Microsoft haters.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:02PM]

Yes, I'm such a Microsoft hater that I run Vista at home.

OH SNAP, who knew making assumptions would make you look like a giant ass? And please, point out to me where I ever said I hated Microsoft or the Zune? And compare that directly to these yahoos I'm responding to who are outright trashing Apple and Apple products, for no apparent reason. Please tell me you can see the difference.

[PynkFloydd Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:04PM]

@Zak: Thanks for admitting to the truth about Apple! lol

Actually, back in the day when Apple had much larger caches on their CPU's...it made sense to buy a Mac if you did intensive operations like audio/video editing. Since Apple switched to Intel CPU's they're just glorified PC's, Apple is all image. If you look at ANY of their TV ads, that's exactly what they sell. They're not even shy about admitting it!

If you took the time to learn Windows, it runs perfectly fine. Actually better. I have my Intel e6600 overclocked to 3.6gHz (I can max it out at around 3.9) and my 8800gts at the specs of a 8800gtx. I instantly load all apps and don't have any errors. It will probably take Apple a few years to catch up to those speeds. I never had a virus and common sense has helped me avoid any software conflicts. The only thing that ever hampered my system was installing iTunes. Which prompted me to got rid of all iPods and switch to the Zune. That fixed the only problem that Vista ever contained. (The driver Apple installed for CD burning was completely incompatible)

I've had Apple products and for my needs and wants...Microsoft is far superior.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:31PM]

Obviously you didn't read my post directly above yours. Read it now. And the thing is, you are basically saying Windows is infallible. You are wrong. You're also insinuating (by use of the word "better") that Windows runs better than OS X.

And you think Apple users are deluded? Really? And clearly if you think Macs are all about image, you don't know very much about them at all. Or why or how OS X differs from Windows. Or why anybody would want a Mac in the first place. That doesn't make you smart, it makes you ignorant. There's a difference.

[sinai Posted Mar 14th 2008 1:00AM]

i have every reason to hate apple. i paid good money for a piece of shit powerbook, an ipod that had to be replaced ten separate times, a "genius" bar full of pretentious assholes who will treat your case differently based on their mood of the day...

and on and on and on...

why do you hate microsoft? because you don't know how to run a computer properly?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 5:22PM]

Wi-fi shopping is the best ideas next to bluetooth file transfer and A2DP! Give my YP-P2 wi-fi and 16Gb and I'll never need another PMP.

[sinai Posted Mar 13th 2008 5:54PM]

we almost went through one zune post without someone saying "LOL WHAT'S A ZUNE?"

and let me reiterate:

with only 5% marketshare, shouldn't we be asking "LOL WHAT'S A MAC?"

[Quikboy Posted Mar 14th 2008 5:32AM]

I feel the same too, but you have to remember Apple's big into "advertising" their products.

I find it hard to pass one week without seeing an Apple ad on TV.

Microsoft really rarely does TV ads. I only recall seeing 1-2 Zune ads on TV, compared to the numerous iPod ones. If MS were smart, I'd suggest they try pulling some of the nice Zune ads (that people actually liked) and putting them on TV.

Unfortunately, they choose to do web ads, which a lot of people block banner ads, and nobody really pays attention to web ads. Unless they're annoying and get on your nerves.

Microsoft also does a bad job advertising, usually showing more than the product they intend to sell.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 5:58PM]

yea.. after being burnt by a 1st gen zune something about this fails to excite me.

sorry microsoft but you're IBM now

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 6:55PM]

If a Zune phone comes out, I will be so happy. A combination of the Zune platform and Windows Mobile would be fantastic.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:48PM]

Dear God, that's sarcasm, right?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 11:29PM]

Nope, I just really like my Zune and also my HTC Wizard that I've had for a couple years now.

The two of them together would be like peanut butter and chocolate.

[ZeroCorpse Posted Mar 13th 2008 8:49PM]

I'm interested in the Zune. Really. Despite being a Mac user, and an iPod owner, I think the Zune has potential. It's certainly better than the Creative and Sandisk offerings out there! I'd definitely consider buying a Zune. . . if I could use it with my computer.

Unfortunately, the Zune doesn't support Mac OS X, and it looks like even though I can take my iPod to any operating system with ease, I'm not going to have the opportunity to use a Zune because MS is being short-sighted and tying it to a program that isn't multi-platform.

Say what you will about Apple being "proprietary", but in the PMP arena, the iPod is the only one that is made to work on either major OS out of the box. Why doesn't MS follow this logic? A lot of Apple users would like to try their products. I *love* my Xbox 360, and it plays nice with my MacBook (no thanks to MS, of course, but lots of thanks to Connect360). It also happens to play nice with my iPod.

But will a Zune handle the basic task of loading my AAC library from a MacBook? Nope.

Make one for everybody, MS, and you might have another sale. Keep excluding a segment of the market, and the Zune will slip into obscurity.

[Quikboy Posted Mar 14th 2008 5:38AM]

I think Microsoft is trying to sell the Zune in a business sense. It's a higher priority to make products that will work with the most people, than to also have the additional task of making it work for a super-small percentage of users.

And while iPod does work on Windows, the iTunes software for Windows is really crappy. The UI seems senseless to me, it takes up a lot of HD space, and a bunch of other quirks to numerous to mention. I think this is Apple's way of getting people to go Mac, which is kind of cheating.

And don't Macs do Boot Camp and Parallels? Couldn't you just get a copy of Windows and run the Zune software on that? I thought that was one of the main features and selling points to get a Mac. Mac owners can use the Zune that way.

[Tubular Posted Mar 14th 2008 12:24AM]

The interesting thing about this is (probably) the forethought. Zunes were built with wifi in from the start, so ALL generations of the device may be able to access the wifi store. However, I can't access any iTunes Store on my iPod Nano: Lousy lack of wifi on those things.

Hint to Apple!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 14th 2008 1:08AM]

another one already?
so what does that mean we should be expecting a new ipod to come out next year too

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 23rd 2008 2:26PM]

I love my Zune 80 hard drive based and 8 flash players. I wouldn't consider them a failure at all, these are great devices, and, I expect more and more people to overcome their love of all things Jobsian and switch withing the next two generations of Zune. I mean Xbox is still losing money in their respective market and I doubt many would call them a failure.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 25th 2008 11:02AM]

I'm a Mac user. I really like the Zune for some reason. I think i'm getting bored with all my Apple stuff.

[basilisham Posted Apr 22nd 2008 4:19AM]

I wish Zune's were launched in Asia. Makes my 5th gen iPod look like crap

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 26th 2008 1:29PM]

Damn you Microsoft and your constant revisions! I was going to buy a 2nd gen Zune 80 but now I think I will just buy a regular zune 30 until the new one comes out.