Inside Mobile Apps is reporting that a source close to Microsoft told them that the company may soon be phasing out it’s much maligned Microsoft Points system. The move would go into effect sometime this year and affect all three branches of Microsoft’s product families – Windows Phone, Zune and Xbox Live.

When Microsoft was asked to comment, they gave the usual, “we do not comment on rumors or speculation” throwaway comment.

With that being said, the source went on to say that mobile developers are being warned to plan their upcoming DLC and in-app purchases around the move to real money. Customers who have unspent Microsoft Points will have them converted into their region’s currency.

For those who don’t know, Microsoft Points are Microsoft’s proprietary system of handling online transactions. They were first introduced with Xbox Live in 2005 and have been a staple of the platform ever since.

The problem comes from the fact that unlike Nintendo’s point system, Microsoft Points don’t translate to actual currency in a way that makes sense. Eighty points equates to one dollar under Microsoft’s system. This led to a feeling that the company was cheating people out of money due to users spending $10 to buy 800 points for DLC that only costs 600 points. This led to 200 points that the user already paid for just sitting there with no purpose.

This move would come as a welcome move to many users, myself included, who have felt the sting of 20 points sitting in their Xbox Live account for the past two years.

"Whether you’re looking to discover deeper cuts, in the market for tickets to the next concert, brushing up on your favorite lyrics, buying a song or finding out whether the lead singer was arrested, Bing now organizes the most common things associated with your favorite artist in a new user interface," the Bing Team explains. 

The concept isn’t bad, but the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired. My first instinct, using this feature, was to check out one of my favorite bands (Converge) to see what kind of info Bing delivered. I was disappointed to say the least.

Labels Can Be Deceiving

First off, the genre Bing has the band labeled as is "Electronic/Dance". I’m not a big fan of the limitations of labels, but this is just way off. There is nothing about the band Converge that is remotely reminiscent of such a genre. They play a special brand of moody metal with roots in hard core (though in some songs they defy genre entirely). That’s beside the point though. If I’m using Bing to check out a band I’ve never actually heard and the first thing I see is a label indicating that band belongs to a genre I don’t care for, I’m not likely to even sample the songs, and am bound to go on my way assuming this band is not for me. That’s not good for artists. 

Interestingly enough, the first five words of the bio, which is directly under the genre (if you make it that far to read it) are, "The punk metal act Converge", which would be a more appropriate label (I suppose). The bio info and the song samples are pulled from Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace. I’ve asked the company where the genre info comes from, and am awaiting response. Zune has the band listed as simply "Rock" (which isn’t all that helpful either, but is more accurate than what the artist page says). 

Irrelevant Results

The videos section simply goes to a Bing video search, which in the case of Converge, again leaves a lot to be desired. There are some Converge videos scattered among a lot of other random videos. I could look past this if I were just doing a search, because I don’t expect Bing to necessarily know that I am talking about the band (though this is debatable since I have them "liked" on my Facebook profile, and I believe Bing has access to that information), but when you’re coming directly from the artist page for this band, you would think they could do a better job filtering the artist-related videos out of the rest. At least the top three video results, which are visible on the artist page itself (before clicking through to see more results) are related to the band. 

No such luck with the regular web results section on the artist page however. The first result is for "Converge – Global Supply Chain Management", followed by the band’s official site. Again, if I were just doing a random search, I could forgive this, but being how I’m on the actual artist page, Bing knows I’m talking about the band, yet it is still giving me the non-band result over the band result. 

Other Issues

The "Converge" page is also lacking some of the other features afforded to some other artists (like tour dates, news, etc.). There is a link for lyrics, but you’d be hard pressed to find any Converge lyrics in there. It seems to pull any random song from any random artist that happens to contain the word "converge" in its lyrics. That must be what I’m looking for if I’m on a Converge artist page right? 

Even the Zune marketplace, where much of the info for the artist pages appears to be pulled from has news for Converge (via the band’s official Twitter account), but this is not present on the artist page. 

Is Converge the exception rather than the rule? Look up the band Grizzly Bear. There is an artist page for this group, which includes videos and images of grizzly bears (the animal). One of two web results is the Wikipedia page for the animal. 

Bing’s artist pages might be more useful to you if the band you’re looking for doesn’t share a name with other things. Lady Gaga searchers are safe. It’s a good thing the Beatles didn’t call themselves the Beetles. 

Not a Good Time for Bing to Disappoint

Bing’s artist pages could be quite useful for users and could help out Microsoft’s Zune unit, but they’re going to have to make some improvements. I’m not sure this was ready for prime time. Bing stands to make significant gains in search market share for reasons we’ve discussed before, and music searches are often done from mobile devices (which is one key area where Bing is bound to get some of that newfound market share). 

Users may not be left with the greatest taste in their mouths if these are the kinds of results they’re presented with.

What do you think of Bing’s new artist pages? Let us know in the comments.

Does Disney’s Keychest sound interesting to you? Tell us.

A studio insider gave this scenario on how Keychest could possibly work…

"Dad has a Zune, Mom has an iPod, there’s a Mac and a PC at home and a Roku box; right now, those devices don’t talk to one another … We intend to blend those worlds."

It’s being rumored that Disney could begin testing the new technology in as little as two months, and it may be consumer ready by next year. Supposedly, Keychest will use cloud-computing coupled with a physical product (e.g. a DVD), that will only require the person to pay for the rights so that it could be watched on any device.

It’s no secret that companies have been looking for a distribution model, as some feel consumers are slowly buying less DVD’s. This is where the Keychest technology would step in.

Would you use Disney’s Keychest technology? Let us know.

Microsoft announced that it will open its Zune video service to the Xbox LIVE this Fall. Microsoft also unvieled its newest portable media player, the Zune HD. Designed to compete with the popular iPod Touch, the Zune HD combines built-in an mp3 and video players, an HD radio receiver, HD video output, an OLED touch screen, Wi-Fi and an internet browser.More details:

• Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD
• The bOLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content on a 16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution).
• The HD-compatible output enables playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

Comments

Recent by comments by Microsoft executives have led to speculation that Microsoft may abandon the Zune.

Microsoft CEO Ballmer declared at CES that consumers increasingly were moving away from one task devices like the Zune towards smart phones while at the same time stating flatly that no Zune phone was in the works.

Microsoft president of the Entertainment and Devices Division Robbie Bach told the press, "We have already started to see some flattening and even declining in the stand-alone MP3 player market. I think you’ll see that continue. As phones get more capable, as battery life gets better, people’s desire to have their music with them along with their phone is certainly going to go up."

I was beginning to get mildly perturbed about the situation, as I have only had the Zune for about a year, and am not ready for it to be on the fritz just yet. I decided that there was a good chance it would correct itself when I got home later and tried to sync it. Then I came across this article.

It turns out that this is happening to people with 30GB Zunes all over the world. Some kind of huge bug. "No official word from Redmond on this one yet but we might have a gadget Y2K going on here," writes Matt Burns at CrunchGear. "Fan boards and support forums all have the same mantra saying that at 2:00 AM this morning, the Zune 30s reset on their own and doesn’t fully reboot. We’re sure Microsoft will get flooded with angry Zune owners as soon as the phone lines open up for the last time in 2008. More as we get it."

It almost seems as though Microsoft thrives on angry customers. I’m sure there are plenty of people up in arms about their new patent filing for pay-as-you-go computing that could see a future of paying to use programs as services on your PC.

Here’s the part where you tell me I should be using an iPod. For the record, I have one of those too.

Update: According to Engadget, "the team of Zune developers is working like mad to figure it out."

Todd Bishop notes that the Zune Social initiative is "one of the first projects to emerge from an advertising business group established inside Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, working quietly behind the scenes since last fall."

 Zune Social

"It’s one of the ways that Microsoft is trying to expand its footprint beyond standard online display ads and Internet search ads, where the company has struggled to gain ground against Google," he continues.

Microsoft will have to walk a fine line between making money and scaring off fans; it’s not as if the Zune, or Microsoft as a whole, is overly popular to start with.  Sponsored artist and event pages are the way in which the company will try to strike a balance.

The ad tests will begin this summer, according to Bishop.  There’s no word yet on when their success or failure will be judged.

The new content also includes programs from Nickelodeon, Turner Broadcasting and VH1, Microsoft said. Titles include "South Park" which is already available for free online, "The Office", "Battlestar Galactica", "Heroes" and "Spongebob SquarePants."

Television shows are priced at 160 "Microsoft points" per episode or $1.99 at launch. The new offerings now include 3.5 million songs, 800 television shows, 4,800 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts.

Microsoft said it has also added updates to the Zune online community allowing users to drag and drop Zune Cards from friends to a Zune device and receive updates on what friends are listening to.

Users will also be able to post their own reviews for artists and albums and earn reputation badges based on how active they are in the Zune community.

Microsoft has also updated the Zune player’s software. New tools let users sync multiple Zunes at once, create an auto playlist that automatically updates itself as new music is added, and a gapless playback feature that erases the brief gap between songs.

In the first quarter of 2008 the iPod continued to dominate the digital music player market with a 71 percent market share while the Zune had just 4 percent according to the NPD Group.
 

» You can find the software HERE. System Requirements

• Windows XP Home or Pro with SP2, Windows XP Tablet PC SP2, or Windows XP Media Center 2005 with Rollup Update 2 and Oct. 2006 Rollup Update.
• 1.5 GHz processor or better
• Broadband Internet connection
• Video Requirements: 64MB of RAM

Via: Live-tr | ZuneCorps Comments

But let me just say: either Google Checkout merchants are atypical (likely) or something is really off here.

Just take a look at the comparison between revenue from the Zune (blue) and the iPod (red):

Just as a reminder, revenue is price x quantity sold (as GCT reminds you when you use it). So, on the day after Thanksgiving, Zune’s relative revenue was $64.65 and the iPod’s was $6.28. Uh huh. Somehow, I just don’t think the announcement of the Zune 2 would be enough to keep the Zune’s revenue that much higher than the iPod’s for nearly a month.

But, like I said, maybe it’s just that Google Checkout merchants are weird. Maybe Microsoft started using them. . . .

Let’s try another, shall we? Here is the iPhone (orange), the Blackberry (red) and the Razr (blue):

Odd. . . You’d think with all those sales, we would be seeing a ton more iPhones than Blackberries.

This data also contravenes the basic laws of economics—that as price increases, demand decreases. There are lots of Blackberries and Razrs out there for less than $400. They may not have the same chic as the iPhone, but they also don’t all come with AT&T. (Can I call the economics police now?)

My favorite part: sales of all of these electronics are down throughout December. I mean, sure, most people like to pick out their own phones, but no MP3 players as gifts? Man, these people are as cheap as I am. Though I could have sworn that comScore reported that consumer electronic sales were up 23% last year. . . .

Wait, who am I kidding? This data is from Google! It must be true!

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