Zune Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Microsoft Corp. today announced that 4GB, 8GB and 80GB Zune digital music players and an extensive line-up of accessories will be available in Canadian stores starting June 13, 2008. "We're thrilled to be offering a truly unique way for Canadians to discover new music and share it with their friends," said Craig Tullett, Group Manager, Zune Canada. "With a variety of players, customization options and wireless capabilities Zune offers a mobile social experience.""



Retailers lined up to sell the Zune include the who's-who of electronics stores in Canada: Best Buy, Future Shop, Wal-Mart, Amazon.ca, HMV (select stores), The Source by Circuit City (select stores). Two things are interesting about that list: first, London Drugs isn't included. London Drugs is a major Canadian retailer with several stores in most major cities - it could be that Microsoft just couldn't convince them to come aboard. The second interesting thing is that Amazon.ca is listed. Amazon.ca does not sell electronics in the Canadian market - they sell books, CDs, DVDs, software...and that's about it. No electronics, no memory cards, no MP3 players, etc. I'll talk more about Amazon.ca in another post, but it's very interesting to see this change and I hope it's a sign of things to come.

ZuneInfo.com published an interesting bit of news about a Canadian marketing firm based out of Vancouver, CIM (Consumer Impact Marketing), looking to fill a full-time position for coordinator working with Microsoft on launching the Zune in Canada.

"CIM (Consumer Impact Marketing) is Canada’s leading 3rd Party Marketing company and one of “Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies”. We are excited to announce that once again we have an awesome employment opportunity for early summer 2008! We are currently seeking a Full-time Coordinator to represent our client Microsoft on their launch of ZUNE in the Canadian marketplace."

The Craiglist ad goes on say that the person hired "...must be willing to work 40 hours per week from May 12th-June 20th." If this person starts their job on May 12th, I have a hunch we might see the Zune launch in Canada, officially, on June 1st. That's just a guess, but if you figure they get a couple of weeks to spin up on the promotions and work with retail partners, then a couple of weeks to ensure everything is running smoothly...June 1st starts to make the most sense.

Which models will launch here? I'm going to guess and say the Zune 80 in black and red, and the Zune 4/8 units in red, black, and pink. Absent will be the green flash Zune and the original Zune 30. Anyone else think there needs to be a blue Zune? I'd dig one of those. Oh, and something with 16 GB of storage!