THANK YOU! I know you enjoyed that title as much as I did!

Well there is more news on Microsofts new music player, Zune. Microsoft has finally released the price for the device ($249.99) and a release date (November 14th). The music service will charge 99 cents a song and will also have a $14.99 monthly subscription plan.

So it looks like this is a direct plan to go for apple's audience. But the question is, what will make people switch to the Zune? Right now, Apple controls 80% of the hard drive mp3 player market. All the songs these Apple users have, are most likely purchased through iTunes and are theirs to keep. The Zune will most likely not be able to play the songs from iTunes which means to convert to the Zune player, owners would have to not only purchase the player priced close to a 30 GB iPod but either repurchase all their songs or find a way to convert them to a file capable of playing on the Zune. Sure there work arounds like burning the songs as an audio cd and then reimporting them onto your computer as an mp3 but that takes time and work which some might not want to do. Another method would be to do the montly subscription but remember that once the subscription is terminated, the songs are gone. So converting to the Zune does not only involve purchasing the player, it involves converting the music too. So, why would people go spend $250 on a player knowing that they will have to do some conversion work which will cost time and possibly more money when they can spend that $250 on a new iPod? Lets face it. Everyone likes the path of least resistance right? So it seems that the majority of the 80% will stay with Apple. They've got too much invested in it to just up and leave. The Zune will need to have a better incentive if they want to take a portion of the market away from Apple.

Furthermore, management for Zune has admitted that the player will not make any profits this year. That's basically telling me, that prices could go up in the future somewhere. Whether it be the monthly subscription, the single music download or the player itself. Something will be raised to make this a profitable venture. And that just means more spending on the consumer.

As of right now, I'm finding little incentives to want to buy a Zune if I was already an iPod owner. I guess we'll just wait and see what happens in November.

-iamsiam