Windows Phone Thoughts: WMP11 Leaked and Released, Microsoft Launches Music Store, Mobile Device Support Improved?

The digital media world has been abuzz this week about Microsoft's two new digital media initiatives: Windows Media Player 11 for the desktop and their launch of a new digital music service. Amongst all this is an interesting set of prospects for digital media for mobile devices, including Pocket PCs. I've got a collection of links and thoughts for you. :)

• Microsoft announces WMP11, which is leaked, reviewed, and released: Windows Media Player 11, which is supposed to be the native player in Vista, has an XP version that was leaked early this week, allowing several sites to put up early reviews; Publish and Windows Supersite are two of them. Since then, Microsoft has released the beta, so everyone can download it. New features include a better UI, better media support, Microsoft's new music store, and mobile device support. Darius has already installed it and is working on a preview about syncing non-DRM music with Pocket PCs, which should be up sometime tonight or tomorrow.
  
  
• WMP11's Improved Mobile Device support: As mentioned in the previous bullet, one of the significant areas of improvement is mobile device support. Arne from the::unwired lists the new features, which includes "better mobile device" support and user-controlled DRM content downgrading (i.e. lower bitrates). The Publish link above suggests the sync UI and experience is much better overall, and I have to say, it'd better be. I was going to post up a review of syncing Janus DRM content using WMP10 to Pocket PCs, but I'll wait now that WMP11 is coming. The short version: WMP10's Pocket PC sync, especially with Janus DRM music, was a frustrating, nonintuitive, buggy process that often failed after about 15 tracks in any given sync. :evil: I'm looking forward to trying the combination with WMP11, and I'll work up a Janus/URGE review over the next few weeks... if it works. :P
  
  
• Microsoft's and MTV's new music store, URGE: Alongside WMP11 is the new Microsoft music store, URGE, which is a major step up from MSN Music, as it offers subscription content for $9.99 ($14.99 for the "to-go" version that enables Janus DRM). Alas, URGE is US-only at this time. Additionally, I'm not sure I'd be happy if I was Real, Napster, or Yahoo; I'd expect those music services to shrink as people switch to URGE (I'm a Rhapsody user, and I'm going to download and try out URGE today). I know Microsoft is trying to compete with the iPod by building a better end-to-end experience (which Walt Mossberg talked about last week), but there is the risk of damaging the ecosystem that Microsoft has spent years building. (Of course, whether it's worth saving that ecosystem is a different question.)
  
  
• What about a new version for Windows Mobile? Nowhere in this news is any discussion of a new version of WMP for Windows Mobile devices, and as of this moment I don't have any news for you either. Microsoft has many options; it could bundle a new version with a new version of the Windows Mobile OS, or could even include it as part of a future AKU (Adaptation Kit Update). Seeing as how we haven't heard anything about WMP upgrades for WM5, I'm guessing that we won't see anything until WM5's successor comes out... which is a shame, because while WMP10 on the Pocket PC is okay, it's still got a way to go to match the desktop (or the dedicated music player) experience. (Speaking of dedicated players, what happened to Portable Media Centers or the Microsoft "iPod killer"? Anyone? I guess we'll just have to wait and see on this one. ;))

Microsoft still has their work cut out for them in the portable digital music space, but I'm glad to see they acknowledge that and are taking steps to improve it. Is it enough to dethrone the iPod and the iTunes Music Store? Probably not in the short-term -- heck, I carry a nano -- but the digital media market has a long way to go in the next 5-10 years.