Robbie Bach talks about Microsoft's Zune

Last Thursday (July 27) Robbie Bach - President, Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft - spoke about Zune at a financial analyst meeting. Here are some excerpts from his discussion of the Zune entertainment brand.

• "Microsoft will be involved in the hardware, in the software, and the services.... we have to tie those things together in some ways like we have in the Xbox world"
• "investment timeline for this.... not a six-month initiative.... going to be a three, four, five-year investment horizon."
• "start with one product this fall in the United States. We will expand next calendar year into broadening the product line, as well as broadening the geographies we cover."
• "It's important for us to have a play in this portable entertainment space in particular relative to music and video, because.... it really completes out the story of what we want to do."
• "we think community is a fundamental part of what has to happen here"
• "We also think discovery is key. Figuring out new ways for people to find their favorite music, certainly, but in some ways more importantly their favorite video."
• "It enables us to have the full entertainment and connected entertainment experience that we want to have. And so that's why Zune is important, and it is a way we're going to differentiate ourselves, because the experience of having Zune in that connected environment is going to be a dramatically better experience than you get just from having a portable music player."

Microsoft has confirmed the development of Zune - a portable media player brand. Billboard has the story.

Here's what we suspect based on the techie gadget rumor mill:

• Zune will hit the marketplace towards the end of 2006
• Wi-fi capability for wireless internet access
  
• Media sharing with Xbox 360, Windows Media Center PCs and Windows Mobile cell phones
• Hard-drive based player
• Video capabilities in the future. Music at the launch.
  

Microsoft has not announced a price for their new music and video player, designed to rival Apple's iPod.

Here's what Microsoft says:

"Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together."

Visit the funky viral ComingZune.com site to sign up for e-mail notifications from Microsoft.

Have you heard anything about the new Zune player and media system? Care to speculate? Share what you know by posting comments to this blog.

As soon as we learn more, we'll pass it on to you.