The Zune hearts content, but how many people heart the Zune?
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft may be putting together an "entertainment marketplace" tentatively named Zune VideoX, ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reported Wednesday. In other words, it's yet another digital content store trying to take a bite out of Apple's iTunes.
Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Devices and Entertainment eHome division, is reportedly spearheading the project. But it goes without saying that as with any of these "iTunes killers" that seem to pop up like mushrooms after rain, well, it's going to be an uphill battle even for Redmond.
Creating a solid digital download store is something that Microsoft has tried repeatedly, and hasn't gotten right yet. Its Zune Marketplace hasn't exactly been a resounding success. There has also been chatter about something called "eLive," a marketplace of digital download content--music, video, games--for Zune digital media players, Windows-based PCs, Xbox gaming consoles, and Windows Mobile smartphones.
"eLive was renamed and recrafted to Zune VideoX," a source told Foley, "and the eLive vision scaled down to focus on Zune." Really? That's too bad. The Xbox has been a much more resounding success than the Zune, and it already has the successful Xbox Live Marketplace as a starting point.
That said, there's reportedly a third-generation Zune coming next year. And on another note, can somebody please outlaw the term "iTunes killer?"
AllFacebook blogger Nick O'Neill wrote on Friday that an "extremely reliable anonymous source" had told him that Facebook is working on an in-house rival to Apple's mighty iTunes Store. According to O'Neill, the company is in the process of looking for an executive to head this division--his source allegedly knew about the whole deal because of an acquaintance interviewing for the position--and is already meeting with record labels.
It's unclear whether this would be strictly a music store or whether it might extend to other forms of media, like TV shows and movies.
This is very much a rumor, but it would make sense from several different standpoints: first, the fact that Apple's iTunes Store is potentially at its weakest point in months due to controversy over digital rights management as well as disputes between Apple and the entertainment industry that have led to several big players like NBC Universal pulling out of the digital-media hub altogether.
Second, it's no secret that the future of Facebook's profitability is hazy, considering how much of the site's revenue relies on an advertising contract with Microsoft that expires in 2011. Plenty of analysts and critics have said that the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company is going to need to find an innovative way to make money.
But on the flip side, starting a digital download store would be a massive operation for a company that has heretofore been strictly a social-networking service--even one that's as hot as Facebook is now. Currently, the company's only e-commerce operation is the one-dollar "virtual gift" service that it's operated since February. Additionally, the digital download market is already getting saturated with new entrants eager to take on Apple's weaknesses. The new Amazon.com MP3 store, for example, has been described as a worthy competitor.
Not to mention the fact that, as O'Neill notes, the developers and companies responsible for Facebook's myriad third-party music applications won't be too happy if the site that provided their software platform created an in-house competitor. But something tells me that won't stop Zuckerberg & Co.
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