Zune Thoughts: Zune Factory in China Confirmed

"The fact that you all voted the Zune "Worst Gadget of the Year" in the recent Engadget Awards doesn't seem to be causing any hand-wringing in Redmond, as Microsoft confirmed today that they're building a dedicated Zune factory in China with an unnamed partner to crank out the oft-rumored next-gen Zune. It looks like Toshiba's not going to be involved this time around, as Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp has been quoted as saying that the rush to get the original Zune to market "forced us to take a look around at what was on the shelf...and get it out there," while this time they're interested in "the flexibility and control we have in creating a device from scratch." Ouch. Sorry, Tosh."

We reported on this a couple of months ago as a rumour, but it's been confirmed now: Microsoft's Zune factory is next to their Xbox 360 factory, and this means that future Zunes will not be manufactured by Toshiba and slapped with a Microsoft logo like the first generation product was. Ultimately I think this is what Microsoft should have done in the first place - the Zune was rushed to market with off the shelf parts, and it shows. Microsoft desperately wanted to get into the market though, and they were prepared to take their lumps to do so - and what lumps they've taken! Looking forward, this will hopefully be nothing but good news for them: tighter control over the product, 100% influence over the design. I can't wait to see what they come up with...