New Zune feature: Download songs you hear on FM radio

One thing about the folks at Microsoft: They don't give up. And that has been true for the Zune, its digital music player, which the company keeps upgrading even with Apple dominating the market.

Today, in advance of an Apple event Tuesday, Microsoft released a host of new features for the Zune, which has about 4% of the market, compared with 71% for Apple's iPod, according to NPD Group.

Among the new features, Zune will enable its users to download music wirelessly and to buy songs they hear on the built-in FM radio. A new crop of Zunes will come in 16 gigabytes and 120 gigabytes and in new colors -- blue on silver and all black. And Zune will start offering recommendations based on the music users listen to.

I'm meeting with the Zune folks this afternoon, so I'll update soon with more information.

But the timing of the Zune news, which was leaked one day early by a retailer, comes as Apple is expected to refresh its iPod line as well as possibly make changes to the iTunes online store. Whatever the news, excitement is waning. In the last five 5 days, Apple shares have fallen more than 8% as analysts have lowered expectations for the event.

Expect a revamped iPod Nano and maybe a slimmer, cheaper iPod Touch, Shaw Wu of American Technology Research said in a note this morning. "While there is always room for surprise, it seems this event may be somewhat underwhelming vs. previous expectations and events," he said.

-- Michelle Quinn

Photo: From left, a Zune MP3 player and an iPod in November 2006. Credit: George Frey  Bloomberg News

Comments

[marlon]

Can you find out about the new "Channels" feature on Zune?

According to reports, it automatically downloads songs based on the ones in your playlist. Sort of like Pandora (www.pandora.com) only portable. Can you find out if this is true?

I am in the market for a new mp3 player for the holidays and I'm trying to see if there are good alternatives outside of the iPod brand. Thanks in advanced.

[Kevin]

Seriously, who listens to FM anymore?

[jim]

i am so ticked of the new 10d nano !?!?! grrrrr people why do ipod have to dominate the market they arent that good ! all they are is update after update! and many of the bugs i have found are still there so whyy bother i am sick of ipod itunes using up my download all the time and with nothing to show for it

nano g4 is a copy of the zune 4-8 in the way of...... glass screen and ture on side for video zune had this first it is just so silly ipod own the market by far and just as some one trys to get in they steal all of there idears!

and microsoft are dumb to they need to release a new zune fast with beter battery and an EQ AND in more that america and canada sooo many people in australia do not even know about zune they all buy ipod because its """the thing""" and if micrsoft do not keep up the zune will just die out!

[Zune Blog]

the zune has made huge improvements over the past 2 years and is a far superiour system over ipod now. its a matter of time before Zune catches on in the larger market and Apple knows this.