When Microsoft officially previewed the Zune digital music player last week, it left out details about the price and release date. Although we still don’t know when it’s going to be out, Wal-Mart may have given us an idea of how much it will cost. In a product page posted yesterday in the Electronics section of its web site, the retailer listed a $284 price tag for the Zune. The page is still up, albeit without the price.
Targeted squarely at Apple’s iPod and iTunes Store offering, the Zune will ship with a 30GB hard drive, built-in WiFi, an FM tuner, and a 3″ 320×240 display. Zune players will be tied to the Zune Marketplace, which will sell music by track and on a monthly subscription basis. Users will also be able to import tracks ripped in the AAC, MP3, and WMA formats—as long as they don’t have any DRM.
Wal-Mart told ABC News that the price “was incorrectly and inadvertently listed at Walmart.com.” $284 does seem like an odd figure, unless you take into account Wal-Mart’s practice of discounting products a few bucks below the competition. For example, one 2GB Creative Zen player retailers $119.72 at Wal-Mart vs. the $139 price usually seen at other retailers
At the launch event, all Microsoft had to say about the price is that it would be “very competitive.” A couple of days prior to the launch event, the consensus $299 price would have been competitive with the 30GB iPod. However, Apple chopped $50 off that model’s price at its Showtime event earlier in the week. That unexpected price drop from Apple may have caused a small change in plans in Redmond if Microsoft was indeed planning to introduce the Zune at $299 as many have suspected.
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