Microsoft Sets Price on the Zune and the Songs

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Microsoft announced the pricing on the Zune media player today, as well as how much the songs from their service will cost. They are going to take a loss on selling the device, saying we’re not going to be profitable this holiday season, but the Zune project is a multi-year strategy.

Microsoft’s 30-gigabyte Zune will retail for $249.99 — 99 cents higher than the iPod with the same amount of storage — when it goes on sale November 14. Songs available for download at the Zune Marketplace service will cost about 99 cents a song, on par with prices at Apple’s iTunes, Microsoft said.

The Zune aims to compete on features, not price, said an analyst. “They’re not getting into a pricing war,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at technology and media research firm JupiterKagan Inc.

“It will be a competition of features versus features, form factor versus form factor, winning the hearts and minds of consumers with something other than price,” Gartenberg said. Source: Yahoo

We Say: Sounds like they are taking the same approach that they do with the Xbox, get the consoles out there and make your money on the accessories and the games, or in this case, songs. But with recent reports coming out that Apple makes all of its money upfront on the iPod, and not many people actually purchase music from them, has to make you wonder exactly how many years they are going to give it.

Added More info available here and from the Microsoft press release.