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."