A story in the Financial Times today is reporting that Zune services will soon be expanding into a number of new markets: The Zune-branded service – which includes the most popular films from MGM, Paramount and Universal – will be available in 18 of its largest western markets, including the US, UK,...

According to a report in the UK Telegraph, Microsoft is set to launch a new music service this month .  The new service “will offer users the chance to stream music for free and also download to own”.  According to Executive Producer for MSN Peter Bale: “Music is an important area for Microsoft...

On June 16 the Zune Services will be down for maintenance. So no Zune Social , Zune.net forums or Zune Marketplace at that time. At the same time Xbox Live will be off for maintenance too. This means that Xbox Live and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox.com forums will...

Yesterday’s Microsoft Press Conference at E3 included a lot of news on Xbox, including some news about Zune video streaming, but did Amazon.com just make a little announcement of their own?  In a listing for the upcoming Zune HD , Amazon lists “access to millions of videos, TV shows, and games from...

OK so the official start of summer isn’t for a few weeks, but Microsoft is facing its most important period in perhaps its entire 30 year history, as initiatives in all its important consumer and online services come together. How they do will do much to shape Microsoft’s future as a player...