XP and Vista to get new media player

CNET News.com reports "Microsoft plans to jazz up its music player in Windows Vista, the company's next operating system," with some features to debut sooner. "The software, which will be built into Vista, is designed to offer better synching with portable devices, make it easier to scroll through long libraries of music, and be tightly integrated with Urge, a new subscription and download music service co-developed by Microsoft and MTV Networks." According to the article, a Windows XP version of Windows Media Player 11 is slated before the end of June.

Supposedly, "with the new media player, consumers will be able to "reverse sync," meaning they can send content from a digital device to a PC. That will allow users to transfer pictures taken with their camera phone, or music purchased on a wireless device. Other sync options include synching a player to multiple PCs and filling a device with random tracks--a la Shuffle in iTunes. Another change is the ability to alter protected music and video files to change their quality level. With the new software, protected Windows Media files can be converted to smaller file sizes for playback on mobile devices, where there is less need for very-high-quality video files."

Of course, there will be no iPod compatibility. Yankee Group analyst Nitin Gupta noted, "When people are taking their songs off their computer, it's usually to an iPod. That's certainly something they could implement. The real issue is the purchased music portion. That's not going to change anytime soon."

Regarding Microsoft's partnership with MTV called Urge, Gupta opined that "Microsoft needs a really compelling service before Windows Media-based digital players can really compete with the iPod. One of the challenges, though, is that the business of selling music online tends not to be that profitable."

He said, "Online music is a low-margin business. Apple can make it work for them because they have another source of revenue" (the iPod). MTV has other ways to leverage their online service. They don't need it to be a profit center."

Gupta added, "If the Urge service does gain popularity and it does drive a lot of usage, that may lead to a more open market for digital music players and more competition for the iPod."