We are late to this one, but deserves to be mentioned: John Paczkowski at GMSV digs up some evidence that Zune will, after all, offer “real sharing” as opposed to the ham-handed approach right now. The device, launched last month, lacked the earlier promised owners to wirelessly DJ music to up to four other Zunes. Also missing was support for wireless syncing with Wi-Fi-equipped PCs and wireless access to the Zune Marketplace.
The reason behind this was MSFT was and is planning to offer users rewards for this kind of superdistribution, though officially the comany denies it. It bought a patent application license from Shared Media Licensing, parent of music super-distribution service Weedshare, though it has licensed back use of it for Weedshare.
The conclusion from John? “There seems to be plenty of evidence to suggest that compensated sharing will be part of the core Zune product strategy and that it will likely be very similar to the system we see today in Weedshare, but perhaps a bit broader. Think super distribution. Think games. Software. Video.”
But Jon Healey, LAT journalist, points out in the comments that even if such a system was implemented, the success of it and leverage for Weedshare “depends on a) the success of Zune, which is, well, umm, not moving the needle, and b) the willingness of more popular labels and artists to use their technology. The first factor drives the second, IMHO.”
Anyway, intrigue is fun, that much I’ll say, even in half-done products.