Microsoft's iPod-Rival: Zune

Microsoft confirmed the rumors about the iPod killer on Friday, stating that the future MP3 player named 'Zune' would be in market in the forthcoming holiday season.

Microsoft also confirmed that its iPod killer will feature wireless fidelity capabilities and a hard-drive (probably Flash-NAND based) for storing tunes. Microsoft is also promising a better-quality screen then the iPod. Even though the company remained mum about any new music download service, we may expect Microsoft to release a rival to iTunes as well. Currently, Apple's iTunes music store is used for 72% of music downloads, while Microsoft's store represents only 3%.

But Apple may also come up with new attractive updates to the iPod at its annual developer’s conference in San Francisco next month. While wireless downloading is one possibility, many are speculating about an iPod cellphone or a new video iPod with a larger screen.

Talking iPod

The world of music is currently dominated by Apple whose iPods and iTunes claim about 80% of the music player share in the U.S. Reports and rumors surfaced last week that Microsoft would come up with a new player to challenge iPod just before christmas but Microsoft issued a statement on Friday denying to have shown or briefed the music industry any such music player.

In any case, in order to keep its domination intact, Apple has introduced a talking iPod today. The device will convert the names of bands, albums and songs into recognizable voice patterns. The iPod will announce what is going to play in advance of it coming on, and allow users to change selections with voice commands.

Apple maintains that the device will be safer for those who are engaging in an activity such as driving or bicycling, where looking at the screen to change songs may be dangerous. A patent application indicates that it will use the same speech technology common in Apple's Macintosh computers.