First Microsoft Zune player to go on sale for $299

Zune to have wifi, but won't be able to download songs without a PC

11 August 2006 9:35 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Microsoft is introducing retailers to the first of its Zune players, which will apparently carry a recommended retail price of $299.

Consumer Electronic website Twice reports that this first Zune is being called a “wearable” digital audio player.

According to the report, Microsoft says that although Zune will offer wifi capability, users will not be able to download music from the online store on the fly.

Rather, they’ll have to hook Zune up to a PC to buy songs.

The retailers said that Microsoft was still “fuzzy” on the details of the wifi capabilities of the player, but one detail that emerged is that Zune will let users tag songs to be shared via wifi.

The device will include a 30GB hard drive, and a larger screen than that of the Apple iPod.

There has been some confusion in various reports over the issue of Zune’s compatibility with Microsoft’s PlaysForSure service; one of the retailers who spoke to Twice said that the player would support the format, even though Zune is to have its own media website.

Via Twice

Full tags

Audio, MP3 players, Microsoft, Zune