Zune is now on sale at more than 30,000 retail outlets in the US, and several cities saw launch parties featuring acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Secret Machines -- there are highlights on Zune.net. The stress is on the social aspect of sharing music.
Speaking at Microsoft's annual shareholders meeting, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said: "We're changing entertainment from something you do in isolation to connected entertainment," according to IDG News.
This will involve more than connecting to the PC and Xbox 260, said Gates: "There is a lot more coming there."
Comment: The next step is already known: enabling current Zunes to share videos they way they share tunes. There will probably also be a connection to Soapbox, now in beta, which is a Flash-based YouTube-style video-sharing site, only much slicker.
Logically, at some time in the future, you can expect the built-in Wi-Fi to connect Zune directly to the net. Microsoft will try to create an online community like Xbox Live, with which Zune shares a common currency: Microsoft Points.
Microsoft Points are the key to the Zune's profits, if it ever makes any. Typically a credit card company takes at least 2% of the value of any purchase, often more, then adds a transaction fee, which might be 10c to 50c. Buy five songs over a period and the supplier is taking a hefty hit, if not making a loss. With Microsoft Points, you pay $5 or more up front to buy points. After that, the microtransactions for buying songs, wall-papers, ring-tones etc are essentially free. Oh, and Microsoft gets the money in advance.
Still, it's rather odd to see so many people complaining about lending Microsoft $4, as if they were only ever going to buy one song. It's not like $4 was a big deal for people who carry around smart phones, PDAs and high-priced notebook PCs. And the idea has already been seen to work in Xbox Live.
