Zune, Xbox 360 & Windows Mobile Phones

In a sign that Microsoft has finally gotten the right idea they seem intent on undoing some of the garbage and hamstrings that basically killed the Zune in the first place. For the first time in almost 4 years now you can finally buy Zune music with your credit cards without the need for those silly Microsoft Points. Sadly I truly believe the convoluted and unexplainable Points program was a major factor in the non start for Zune. Apple understood it was much easier to just take the hit on credit card fees for micro purchase and they iTunes has been racking up billions in sales while Zune has probably been more like millions.

To this day I have 264 Microsoft Points leftover from like two years ago. I bought some Xbox game content with it a few months back so I suppose I could do the same except the Map pack for Modern Warfare is 800 points and I just know I’d end up with even more of those stinking points if I try to add enough for the maps.

Credit Card Purchases Now Accepted: Microsoft Opens Up Its Zune MP3 Store | paidContent

Buried in yesterday’s onslaught of Bing announcements was news that Microsoft’s Zune service was launching a new MP3 store. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said that anybody who looked up a track on Bing would now be able to stream the track for free via Zune and “purchase any of the millions of pure MP3s from the Zune catalogue.” The move fits with Microsoft’s strategy of pushing its Zune-related services, as opposed to the Zune device itself, and should give the Zune brand some new exposure. After all, while Bing may still lag badly behind Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in the search market, it is attracting millions of searchers a month.