The Microsoft press release says that the Zune will be available on Nov. 14 for $249.99. They priced the 30GB device the same as Apple’s 30GB iPod. The release highlights its unique features including…
- Zune-to-Zune sharing of music, pictures and home recordings
- A 3-inch LCD video screen that works in portrait or landscape mode to view pictures and videos
- FM radio tuner
- Preloaded songs, music videos, and film shorts.
- A Zune Pass $14.99/month subscription service (personally, I think $9.99 is the sweet spot and that their price is a bit high)
- Ability to purchase individual songs for 79 Microsoft Points (a registered trademark, btw). But, they don’t say what a Point translates to in US Dollars (or Linden Dollars for that matter :-).
- Accessories ranging in price from $19.99 to $99.99: Cables, chargers, bags, etc.
Subscriptions...
Speaking of subscriptions, I think subscriptions are what will kill their drm. That's essentially why they're trying to sue the FairUse4WM author. I also think that the lack of subscriptions is a wise move for Apple. If you have to support subscriptions, then it's that much more appealing to remove the drm and that much more costly to have hackable drm. So it's not so much that Apple disagrees with the notion that consumers want subscription services, it's that subscriptions have a huge hidden cost, as Microsoft is beginning to find out.