Toshiba will manufacture wireless Zune for Microsoft, photos reveal | TG DailyA Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Reuters this afternoon that an MP3 player, for which Toshiba has filed for a license with the FCC, is actually the Zune player that Toshiba will apparently be manufacturing on behalf of Microsoft. The application was for a 30 GB hard drive MP3 player with a 3-inch color display.
As a chassis, the Zune prototype depicted in the FCC filing appears to have been derived from Toshiba's existing Gigabeat line of players, though with a round controller more similar to Apple's iPod, rather than the Gigabeat's four-pointed star control. The unit will be powered by a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, that can use a recharger stand connected to a PC's USB port. Like the Gigabeat, the Zune will have a three-inch TFT display tilted in portrait mode. It will be available in black, white, and in a nod to those who love color but perhaps don't love it too much, brown. Whether Zune users will appreciate its all-plastic design may become an important question, especially given how consumers responded to early editions of Apple's iPod nano screen, which was prone to scratches.
Toshiba's involvement as the apparent sole manufacturer of the Zune device for Microsoft explains why Toshiba was not among those companies expressing any opinion whatsoever on the Zune announcement last week, while Microsoft's portable media partners Creative Labs, SanDisk, and iRiver scrambled for position.
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