“Microsoft does not expect an immediate return on its outlay for its upcoming ‘Zune’ media player, predicting a three- to five-year investment period for the new device,” Reuters reports.

“‘It is something that is going to take time,’ Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, said at Microsoft’s annual analyst meeting. ‘This is not a six-month investment time horizon,’ he said, adding that it may take three, four or five years to succeed,” Reuters reports.

Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "BrooklynNYC" for the heads up.]

“The software giant plans to have one music player in the U.S. this year, expanding into other devices and regions next year, [said] Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.

“Microsoft confirmed its plans for its Zune-branded player and service last week, but has offered scant details beyond the fact that it will have a hard drive-based music player with a built-in Wi-Fi connection on the market this year,” Fried reports. “The move is a radical departure for the software maker, which has until now tried to take on Apple with a partner approach, in which many devices and services used Microsoft’s technology. Although the devices and services were by and large compatible, the experience hasn’t been what Microsoft hoped.”

Fried reports, “Bach said Microsoft is not abandoning its partner-oriented PlaysForSure program, even as it looks to build its rival Zune approach. ‘PlaysForSure continues as it is today,’ he said, addressing a question from analysts. ‘We’re going to continue to support that,’ he said.”

Full article here.
Are Microsoft really shooting for 20% of the iPod market or are they actually targeting the 20% of the market that iPod currently doesn’t own? We suspect the latter. Regardless, we hope Microsoft spends a lot of money on this. While we don’t see Microsoft’s efforts as much of a threat to iPod+iTunes, we also hope it pushes Apple by providing some measure of real competition that will drive innovation even faster.

For more on why we don’t think Microsoft can “kill” Apple’s iPod+iTunes, please read SteveJack’s take here.

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