Zune HD (xYz) positioned to take on Apple, Sony, Nintendo and Google?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 15th 2009 6:42AM
posted May 15th 2009 6:42AM
Sounding too good to be true, the cats at Teamxbox have posted a lengthy piece quoting multiple sources from Redmond and Santa Clara who anonymously spill the beans on what the Zune HD is and isn't. The "digital entertainment handheld," dubbed unanimously as product "xYz" by said sources to emphasize its purpose of bridging the Xbox and Zune platforms, is not a phone (that's Project Pink) but a converged "mashup" of devices like the Sony Mylo, PSP, and iPod touch. The emphasis of the device is not the hardware but the software, services, and entertainment experience if offers while remaining primarily "a portable game console and media player." It's said to link into Microsoft's Skybox computing services for mobiles and blur the lines between Xbox Live and the Zune and Sky Marketplaces. Even the Xbox 360's NXE interface will be making its way onto the new Microsoft handheld. As Teamxbox summarizes: Buy a song, a movie or a TV show on your Xbox, play the content later on the handheld or the other way around. Play an Xbox Live Arcade game either on your Xbox or in this handheld.At the moment, we have no way to authenticate any of this beyond what we've brought to the table already. Honestly, having had our hopes crushed by a tepid reaction to market trends from Microsoft in the past makes it difficult to believe all these seemingly fanboi fantasy claims of specs and convergence. However, if true, if Microsoft finally breaks free from the rigid silos of its own making and delivers an integrated living room, gaming, and portable media experience along with a stable Windows 7 computing environment... well, wait this just can't be happening.
[Via wmpoweruser and SlashGear]
Can they announce this thing already? My Zune 30gb broke and I had to fix it myself. Close call. I can't travel without music. Possibly E3?
@ Schweppes
There are so many holes in your logic that I don't know where to start so I'll wrap this up quickly by saying you're an idiot!
>like a begging troll
Wow. Ironically enough, a troll just called others trolls.
Just... what?
Apparently Schweppes has never heard of the iPod touch, which is clearly a bag o' shite by his own definition. Dumb monkey...
He's not a dumb monkey, he's a troll. I'd call him a dumb troll, but that would be redundant.
Schweppes is certainly a d-bag, but that doesn't make him wrong.
Wi-fi is hardly ubiquitous, and wimax is available in all of 2 cities at this point. Even when it is nationwide, in 3 or 4 years, I doubt carriers are going to offer free access to it. I'm not paying $50 a month on top of my mobile bill for a gaming handheld.
Also if you read the txb article, wimax is an assumption by the author not anything he was told.
For this to truly be a cloud device it needs access everywhere, and I don't see that ability without cell networks.
It is obviously a business decision not to include a phone.
Microsoft making a phone would obviously upset their windows mobile partners which they don't want to do.
These feature hopefully will also feature in winmo7 as well so MS will have this device and winmo 7 to compete with iphone and ipod touch.
Then again there is nothing concrete here.
It could also be modeled like the Kindle, where it has cellular access to data but no monthly fee. All speculation at this point anyway.
You know though its another step in the right direction. In a microsoft environment (although there is no xbox portable) theyre decreasing slowly the amount of devices to carry. Eventually I think we'll see very strong relationships to this device and winmo 7 and eventually one device will be a smart innovation.
I hope they can keep tight control over the hardware (like the Xbox/Zune) since the software/ecosystem licensing model doesn't work well in consumer gadgets.
Android seems to be doing OK out of the gate... though it's not "licensed" per-se
Way 2 go Microsoft!
Sounds pretty awesome! sadly awesome and Microsoft don't go together.
Wonder if we will ever be able to not bother buying one of these in the UK !
@Brian - You smugness and lack of excitement for this product is insulting to the other Brians. Renounce your name immediately.
@xYz - Awesome
A) Zune is the best deal around for music with the exception of stealing. $15/mo for all the music you want is entirely reasonable, plus you get to keep 10 songs/mo. The only thing Zune needs now is a kickass piece of hardware. Zune 120 is nice, but it's not as portable as the iPod Touch. Zune Software >>> iTunes Software, iPod Touch hardware >>> Zune 120 hardware
B) Integration into XBL on a portable device sounds like a dream come true, so long as it can play some form of XBLA games, integrate my MSN messenger contacts, and stream my TVersity content over WiFi, just like the 360.
C) It better be smaller than the first gen PSP. If MS released a portable entertainment device that looked like that fanboy mockup of the PSP2, for less than $250, Sony's PSP would have to either seriously shape up or die.
Count me in!
OP Brian, don't you mean that you wonder if your EU Overlords will ever allow such a device to be sold / imported into the UK? I mean, a device that plays music, surfs the web, and has games...that's a monopoly!
If true i expect a slide out keyboard plus dpad and buttons.
If not, it won't be more successful with hardcore gamers than the ipod touch.
"Hardcore gamers" & "iPod."
Now that's two things you wouldn't expect to read on a website with intelligent people!
i can bet there are a lot more casual gamers is this world than 'hard core' gamers.
If you were a business who would you target?
They could sell an aftermarket device that you can place the Zune into with controls. That would be awesome for Xbox Arcade games and couldn't be any larger than todays PSP.
There is too much buzz about this, for them not to show anything at e3.
It's either Microsoft is going to come with something amazing or E3 is going to be a letdown for them because of these rumors...
OMG! I which this is comes to pass... It would so trump all apples's products combined... Zune HD FTW!!!
Only if they can fix the shite Zune Software.
zune software is 100 fold better than itunes. i've tried out tons of media player software, samsung, microsoft, winamp, apple, etc, and itunes is by far the worst.
Admittedly, previous versions of the Zune software were kinds lame. Slowed down my system and really weren't all that special. The last release though, REALLY bloo mah 50ckS off! I really liked it. I used to buy my music through iTunes but now I've been buying my music through the Zune software. (I have to admit though, the last album I bought from them was the last Breaking Benajmin CD [which was awesome btw] os I haven't had a chance to try out the new version of iTunes). The Zune software's really neat. :)
Well, at least Apple can make a decent browser.
IE on the desktop is slow, doesn't conform to standards, and is the scorn of web developers.
IE on mobile devices is one step above getting your information through carrier pigeons.
WebKit (Safari/Chrome) on the desktop is fast, flexible, and one of the most standards-compliant web engines out there, it's even open-source.
WebKit on mobile devices is the de-facto standard.
WebKit was the way Apple changed the mobile industry. After all, before the AppStore, the iPod touch was just an iPod with that all-essential WebKit browser, and it sold phenomenally well. Microsoft don't have a history of making good browsers.
@KarlW
Begone. You contribute nothing.
@rob
Oh really?
The buggy ID3v2 tag reading, its tendency to rewrite tags without notifying the user, how 10 somehow comes before 2 when organizing albums.
It's easy to prevent it from changing your tags or album in for in the settings. Putting in your own info and album art is simple as well.
@KarlW
Hmmmm....ever heard of Firefox? Is it made by Apple? I don't think so. Of course, it's not made by Microsoft either but that's not the point. Don't act like Apple is God.
Microsoft has a lot of software that can easily make this a potential threat to all the aforementioned. seriously imagine all those xbox live games in a zune sized package that plays all your media and makes calls. and I hope that if this is true, that it is a separate entity than windows mobile.
Hold the "phone", nobody said anything about being able to make calls. You let the cat out of the bag. Might as well let them know it is a camera and had gps too.
ha ha ha...i laugh at all the fruity fanboys...
Zune HD is gonna crush all your PMPs ^_^
I'm going to bet against that if only for the fact that Microsoft will surely find some way of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Why they do this is quite beyond me...
I love my 120g but Microsoft always seems to find a way to fail; even when they do everything right...I really don't understand it. Zune is obviously better than iPod ( to those of us not blinded by pop cult.) yet it barely manages a profit
...Until we realize it costs $400.
What are your standards for failure, Liam? Anything less than total market domination?
The 360 is a solid machine, and their decision to beat the PS3 to market (despite troubling RROD issues) seems to have given them a real advantage in the current generation of consoles. They've been doing nothing but right with the 360 recently IMO.
The Zune hardware and software are both great but of course they're not dominating the PMP market. Apple still releases quality devices and they had a huge head start.
By most accounts Windows 7 is going to be a great revision.
And last I heard, they're still turning decent profits.
I'm confused with the whole fail thing :|
@Liam, 250M in R&D will do that to any division.
Hehe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msCSi7obI9s
Microsoft never cease to amaze with their attempts to conquer the living room.
I have a Media Center PC and a 360 in mine. So I'd say they've succeeded.
And Apple's don't? See: Apple TV
Microsoft has taken over my living room. Media Center FTW. If the Zune HD turns out to be what these rumors describe, I will be severely tempted to get one. And the Apple TV does not even come close to Media Center. The inability to act as a TV tuner/DVR makes the Apple TV just a glorified streaming device.
@Mr Clickerson:
Mio didnt say Apple TV wasnt a successful attempt!
What's wrong with you fanboys?
I didn't say they succeeded, either. The AppleTV is a regrettably underwhelming device.
For you idiots:
"Microsoft never cease to amaze with their attempts to conquer the living room."
And Apple's don't?
You see, idiots, I didn't reply to Mio, I replied to "skyzbig". Apple's trying harder and harder to push their "Apple Ecosystem" bullshit. If you guys hadn't failed reading comprehension, that would have made more sense.
Fanboy? LOL! I don't even like Apple products- how could I be a fanboy of them?
@ Mr Clickerson
Please use @ followed by name of whom you are directing your comment in order to improve said comprehension.
See above for example.
You only use that when you're replying to someone who isn't the OP. You can only click "Reply" on the "original poster's" post. If you're replying to someone else who replied to the OP, then that would be the case. It's obvious who I was talking to when I didn't post "@".
@ Mr Clickerson
clearly it wasn't obvious as no one understood.
BTW was your reply to me or the OP? :-p
There is an OBVIOUS line of conversation. It was plain as day that I was talking to you. My response wouldn't have made sense if it was directed to Mio, and not the OP's.
Oh, whoops- you'll probably skip over this, thinking I'm talking to "zfurie", so: @ poke @ poke @ poke @ poke @ poke @ poke @ poke
what handheld?
Zune?
I'm intrigued at the suggestion that there will be no access to phone networks. It is impossible to compete with Google unless there is also WWAN access. Furthermore, if, as is rumoured, the Zune HD is to be launched worldwide, it would make sense for it to connect to 3/3.5G networks rather than LTE/WiMAX. The article suggests WiMAX, but as yet this does not have widespread deployment, and WiFi is just not enough for a an access everywhere device.
If it's not a phone, it doesn't NEED to be able to access a phone network. I don't really want to be paying an additional $50 a month on top of the $15 subscription service. WiFi is enough.
Well if this thing does merge Xbox 360 and Zune and MS Cloud, then I can hope for a 360 and MS Cloud merger.
I mean come on!
There's 25gb just sitting there in SkyDrive, and there are millions of Xbox 360 just sitting there...doing nothing with that space.
Now that my selfish agenda is done, I'd love if Microsoft would really release this device and start merging their services seamlessly together.
13 comments on a microsoft product (a music player, no less) and no flames or rants about apple and microsoft. I'm so proud of you guys. *wipes tear from eye*
Woohoo, enternainment services and gaming and all including the latest in DRM, for YOUR convenience!
Because, remember kids, if it's "compatible with windows PlayWithDrm", it's compatible with fun!
I know it goes against everything you believe, but honestly what does Microsoft provide that's DRM'd? Rented music?
Castle Crashers on my Zune?
That would convince me to sell my 120.
I would prefer to play board games....
Here is where marketing can make or break a device. Call it Zune-something: tepid reaction in marketplace. Call it XBox-something: instant hit.
"Zune HD" sounds strangely compelling to me. The Zune has a reasonable amount of positive buzz - most of the hate is from the "it's not an iPod" crowd. I've not heard of many people who didn't like their Zune.
The writer is right.... this is far too good to be true. If such is the case, next year will see the rise of MS convergent devices..... NO!!!!!
the microsoft ybox, microsoft's new mobile gaming + music player + etc.
For the last time: PINK is not a phone! It's a godamn service (Zune+WM)!!
Oh Noes, teh still angry ghost of Ike.
So you're saying its a cool phone right?
It seems a waste to me that they wouldn't integrate Project Pink with this. Have a mobile data plan? Sure, download this XBLA game on impulse even though you don't have wifi. Carrying your phone around? You have the possibility of buying this song you just heard on the radio.
It IS a perfect waste indeed. For a product that could have a seamless connection with XBox Live, you'd think it'll have 3g connectivity. But the drawback for this is it won't have a phone feature, so that'll mean two data plans, two bills to pay, one for your phone and the other for this. Without the phone feature, people aren't gonna bother with another data plan, and if it's just wifi, being able to connect only at certain points is just lame. Well, if it turns out like the psp, I'll only be loading content at home cause I'm not gonna lounge around Starbucks or McDonalds to connect with my portable.
I don't know how many of these rumors I actually believe, but one thing I know for sure is that I definitely won't be buying a new PMP until this this is fully revealed. There's too much potential here to ignore.
Whoa, has it always been called xYz? I was just thinking to myself after the last Zune article that it would be cool if their next project was a Y. They could even add a "W" for Windows.
I think they should call it Yancy.
Yea, you definitely can't promise portable XBLA without twin sticks.
Depending on the screen tech, couldn't you have twin virtual sticks. Like 2 circles in the bottom corners of the screen.
If microsoft gets some good hardware here for a reasonable price, good integration with their other products and most importantly a subsequient "appstore", they might make a neat dent in the almighty itunes/appstore/ipod group. I own an ipod touch and you have to admit it is very fine pmp. But this here could be what would make me switch, or if not i hope it will bring more competition to a market that really needs it, apple has too much power
Ok, this "news" sounds incredibly unexciting...seriously, this is simply a catch-up play at best. There is no real news here.
Sure some of you zune fans (both of you....sorry couldn't resist) may be excited for this but the rest of the world could care less. Invent something new Microsoft and then someone will notice, until then you are just a "me too" player without vision or innovative abilities.
On a side note, I was on a plane from Florida a couple weeks ago sitting next to a kid with a zune. I asked him why he went for the zune over an iPod Touch or Sansa, etc. and he gave me a sad look and said he "wanted the iPod Touch but got this instead"...said he was saving up to buy his own Touch.
nice story .. nearly shed a tear
:')
@ Cheddar
Please tell me when a big corporation has invented something new recently?
They are all me too companies by your standards - Apple included.
In my eyes there is nothing wrong with convergence and also improving upon a proven idea.
"improving on a proven idea"....what have they improved on recently?? While I was not specifically talking about Apple innovating you have to admit they have brought new life to the smartphone market with the iPhone. Like them or not they saved digital music and have energized the smartphone market in the last 10 years...what has Microsoft done in that time?
Keep jamming on that low-rank button...the truth is a killer folks, take off your rose colored glasses.
Many companies innovate and others are like BASF...
While the conversation clearly surrounds this potential product's impact on Apple, a more interesting topic would be what Sony's reaction to this will be since both they and Microsoft are competing for your money in the living room, which is what the Zune HD is supposedly trying to extend. Sony already has the PSP, which is a good foundation, but it's got a way to go before it looks like it would compete with devices that make taking your media with you easy. It's rather large dimensions probably don't help either...
Im sure sony has something in the works.
They have walkman for music and videos
PSN as a potential app store.
Links with Sony Ericsson for mobile tech.
They just need to bring it all together.
I think sony and ms are in more of a potentially stronger position to create solid mobile gaming on a convergent device due to xbox and playstation following.
This is indeed it. Sony has all the ingredients but doesn't yet seem to have the recipe yet. If/When they do then they'll be a force to be reckoned with, probably more so than Apple. For this reason I wonder why so much of the focus is on the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch given the 800lb gorilla that is sat in the corner of the room. That said, it amazes me that Sony has not yet got its act together properly in this area considering how they are trying to position the PS3 and PSP so perhaps it will never happen.
You bring up a pretty good point Kelmon. But I think with the looming rumors of the PSP2, and Sony's grounding with Cell technology, oled and what not, if they were to release a PSP2 which could theoretically use cell architecture, they'd have an easy grounding for software scaling via PS3 to PSP. And they're "operating system" if you would, can become all the more efficient if they're both run on similar hardware. Sony can deny the PSP2 all they want, I think they're working on a monster :P
@Chrono, K
Keep thinking those happy thoughts, we're years away from anything close to the cell chip being used in mobile applications.
From now on I wish to be called 'Wwhat HD', and I demand ten times the respect and admiration as a consequence dammit.
Do you guys also get tired of all the 'HD' nonsense?
not as much as adding a lowercase letter i to the front, or "touch" to the end
Good point, I wonder if the world is ready for the unimaginable awesomeness of an iPhoneHD, probably not huh.
I just love mega tech.
Which is why I have an iPhone; and my previous mobile device was a Sony Clie NZ90 (I always wanted the memory stick video recorder).
Sony wonders out loud at their loss and how they could should but most dire is that they DID and just dumped it.
This sounds and probably is great and lame like the iPhone; now bring out even more insane gear.
Hmm, a handheld unit that does the same stuff as a home console, including playing the same games rather than lite or different versions...
Anybody else remember the TurboGrafx 16? This idea isn't really new, although the technology has certainly evolved into a much more convenient form.
It will be interesting to see how this idea pans out for them...TurboGrafx didn't last very long
That's all great...but will it work on a Mac?
I think we all know the answer to that question. The more important question, however, is whether they will sell the device outside of the US? Personally, I'm a Mac user who lives outside the US so I'm buggered two ways on this subject, figuratively speaking ;-)
This said, while I have nothing against the Zune I still would not buy a 360 so the Zune HD would be of limited use to me.
I think "Pink" will be a platform that 3rd party manufacturers can also build. That's why those specs were leaked a few days ago with several different possible configurations.
I think what'll happen is that Microsoft will implement the equivalent of the iPod Touch (media + gaming but no phone), but 3rd parties like HTC will implement the Pink platform but include phone functionality along with it. Companies like HTC will jump on it because it would let them build a phone that can actually compete with the iPhone. Microsoft would be willing to give up some profits on the phones because, a) they don't want to act against their Windows Mobile partners, and 2) the more Pink phones are sold, the more both the Zune and XBox brands are strengthened.
It will be interesting to see if this strategy of acting as a platform and letting 3rd parties build the devices will pan out. It failed with Plays4Sure, but the difference is that this time Microsoft will still control both the service (Zune/XBox marketplaces) and the client software to access them. This will hopefully avoid the compatibility nightmares that plagued the ironically-named Plays4Sure devices.
MS zune should have all these to beat apple's touch:
Oled touch screen with 720x480 reso
Expandable mem micro as like the sansas
Streaming video thru wifi that decodes divx
3g Internet connection option
User Replaceable battery that plays at least 8 hours of video
Basically a nokia n82 with a big touch screen
I hope the rocket scientists at ms could read this post
They can also add mr gate's picture as default wallpaper
I think MS is way out in front of everyone in terms of what they are doing with services. As a result they are losing current phone battles to win the war. Of course this is all speculation until a device actually appears but everything I have heard sounds impressive and with the base they already have with such things like Live, XBox and Windows Media Center they are in a perfect position to flip the game on everyone. Even features like allowing people to reach their music library from any Live connected device show this synergy will be supported in Windows 7.
The ability to bring in XBox Live games on to a device like this and eventually on to a Windows Mobile 7 phone I think takes a huge bite out of the male demographic buying an iPhone. Add the ability to play movies bought from an XBox, or a show recorded in Windows Media Center. No one has this ability to tie so many different dimensions together.
Very well stated, nobody else in the market has the potential of providing a similar package. If this device could play the Xbox Live arcade games and not just the XNA games, nobody currently would be able to match the quality and variety of games available. There's no point of buying music and videos from both the Xbox service and the Zune service separately. Apple wouldn't be able to come close to offering anything similar because of the XBox. As for Sony, why would i want to buy a game for PS3 and then a light version of the same game for a PSP. At least if this is true i can start a game on my Xbox, save it, and continue it on the road.
I guess if this was a converge device that would be pretty cool. But I don't know if they will get me as a customer because there's no damn way would I pay for Live just for that device and I don't have a xbox360. How will it integrate with other devices and how can we get content on it. I don't think the Sony crowd will buy it. The ipod crowd...um...I would say no either.
This device xYz may have some kind of accelerometer just like the ipod but where's the hardware control. Without that it's no gaming device. So this is worse than the ipod, worse than the psp. Already it's going to have an uphill battle. I say fail.
It's interesting how you've labeled it a failure based on your analysis of your guessing at the hardware.
and by interesting, I mean moronic.
Can we just wait til it comes out, then beat it down with a stick?
I hate the accelerometer. Trust me, I'm an iPod Touch early adopter, and it seems to wear out after a while. Now I frequently have to tap the iPod lightly to get it to work. I'd take a D-Pad any day.
At times like these, I miss my iPod Mini...
By the way, I'm part of 'the ipod crowd' and 'the sony crowd'. Let's face it-Sony builds some damn nice hardware. Bravia, PlayStation, etc. But I'd like to ditch 'the ipod crowd', as it's not the niche device it once was. That variable pricing model iTunes uses now royally pissed me off. Billy Squier should not be 1.29 a song.
As somebody who has an Xbox 360, I've been waiting for Microsoft to sort of merge the Zune Marketplace and Zune Marketplace, as well as some of the other functionality. I think pretty much all the television shows and videos, that you find on Zune, are also on 360, and since you couldn't buy it once from one, and get it on the other device, it was a miss on Microsoft's part.
It's been said, with job postings and comments from the higher-ups, that this was in the works, so I look forward to it. Also, since your Zune Gamertag is your Xbox Live Gamertag, it'd be great to see a friends list on your Zune, to see who is online on Live, and then vise-versa on the 360. I'm looking forward to finally updgrading from my 8GB flash model, which has been great... but I need more storage!