Microsoft Counting on a Twist to Make Zune Shine in Shadow of iPod

The hoopla was still swelling around last November’s debut of the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s latest entry in the game-console wars, when some on its development team began turning their attention to conceiving a new product.

Their discussions led to the rough outline of a device that might do
for portable music what the new Internet-enabled Xbox was poised to
deliver to gaming: connected entertainment.

Tomorrow, after committing hundreds of millions of dollars, Microsoft is scheduled to release that device, Zune.

It
was, its makers say, an idea brought to fruition by a 230-member team
in a creatively fervid overcrowded office space near the software
giant’s sprawling campus in Redmond, Wash.