More comment from Microsoft

Bryan Lee, corporate vice president, entertainment at Microsoft has recently commented at the Citigroup's Global Technology Conference that Zune will not look like Toshiba's Gigabeat device which many commentators have criticised them about allegedly being based on. The Zune MP3 player won't be like any "product in the market so far" either. Zune's usage will not be tied to Vista, Microsoft's upcoming update to its operating system but will be able to be used with Windows XP.

Further comments include:

"For us, it's very much about taking the world we see today, adding a software layer, creating an environment of connection, and creating a layer of intelligence that allows for much richer consumer experiences. So Zune is just another example of that."

Talking about the mooted "social butterfly" he said:

"my experience gets better because I have one, because you have one, because Joe has one. We can learn from each other. The device can learn from me, and it can learn from each of us. When we get specific on features and things that we're doing, you'll see a lot of emphasis on community, on a shared type of experience."

He also mentioned the fact that Toshiba will be helping in production:

We knew that we needed some contract manufacturing, someone to help us. Much like with the Xbox business, we don't literally run the factories. ... We do a lot of the design. So we picked Toshiba. They brought experience in the space that we didn't have. They brought some of the foundational technology, but the device that you see will not look or feel or smell very much like the product that they've taken to market thus far."