Zune to Sell for $299, Wi-Fi Abilities to Be Limited

I think it's fair to assume that most of the blogosphere's Zune-watching is of the slow-motion-train-wreck variety -- we really want to see how many missteps Microsoft can make with their new player/software/store, even with the benefit of several years' worth of hindsight. I'd like to say I'm above that sort of thing, and usually I am; generally I prefer to judge after a product has come out, rather than before.

But those guys at Redmond are just making it way too easy.

First came the news that the first Zune player probably won't do video; now TWICE reports that Microsoft has been briefing certain retailers on the Zune player, and interviews with some of those retailers have revealed some interesting details.

First, the 30 GB Zune player will have a suggested retail price of $299, on par with the 30 GB iPod -- though the iPod has video and, likely, will remain the sexiest MP3 player. (Honestly, I'm not sure how much stock to put in the "no video" Zune story; why put in such a huge screen if not to play video?)

Second, some of the speculated Wi-Fi features, like buying music without needing to be connected to a computer, were apparently just that: speculation. Likely there will still be some kind of music-sharing ability between players in proximity to one another. In short there will still be some features not to be found in any iPod, but the gap will be closer than previously thought.

And the skepticism meter goes up one more notch.