The grapevine says some at CES are being told Microsoft will no longer develop PlaysForSure, its proprietary DRM system, a move Microsoft swore up and down it would never make when the company failed to include PlaysForSure support in the Zune line.

According to PC Pro News,"Microsoft will concentrate exclusively on its Zune platform, which is not compatible with PlaysForSure. Microsoft has neither confirmed or denied the reports, which draw on comments made by an executive for one unnamed music service and have been confirmed by others in the industry. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that he expects PlaysForSure to continue, although he has explained that Zune was conceived because the PlaysForSure approach had failed to dent Apple's dominance of digital music."

And just when Napster was starting to show new signs of traction. It's unclear yet what all this means for the many PlaysForSure partner companies but, the end of development could put them all in a very precarious place. This could be a good thing for some, as Real Networks and Sandisk seemed to see this coming a while ago, and have created a new, competing subscription-capable DRM format.

See Also:
Think PlaysForSure is dead? Don't tell Napster
Real Networks and Sandisk hook up
BBC catches on to PlayForSure lockout on Zune
Microsoft prepared for long haul and big investment in Zune

Aw, keep trying little buckaroo! C|Net reports that the Zune hasn't cracked the top ten portable music players, although it has captured a "decent slice" of the hard drive based player market in big box retail stores.

The overall top ten is overwhelmingly Apple, with 8 of the top ten slots occupied by fruit etched media devices, Sandisk's Sansa models round out the rest of the ten. For what it's worth, Santa (also known as a stand-up comic and brit-pop trivia nutjob) recently delivered a Sansa to my doorstep, and I couldn't be happier.

Analysts are saying that Microsoft is "doing well for a newcomer" and reminding us that the Zune is a "multiyear haul" but, what is it going to take to wedge Apple out of the driver's seat and substitute a Microsoft product in its place? The Zune's marketing, though really pretty, is incredibly conceptual and artsy and, frankly, the American consumer isn't exactly known for their ability to "get" high-brow concepts. Coupled with the closed eco-system of Zune's "Marketplace", and the relative complexity of the whole Zune experience, MS has a very long way to go to win this little war they've started.

Those early Zune sales numbers are slipping into less-than-average territory, having dropped to 5th overall behind Apple, Creative, Sandisk and even also-ran Memorex.

Bloomeberg reports, "Zune's market share declined as SanDisk Corp. boosted sales with a 50 percent price cut on its media players, taking a 39.3 percent share and knocking Microsoft from the No. 2 spot it occupied in its first week in the market. Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft sold about the same number of units as the previous week, failing to keep pace with rising holiday sales."

All in all it appears as if the Zune will find its way under far fewer Christmas trees than Microsoft had once hoped. Microsoft's PR machine is still hopeful however, predicting 1 million units sold by mid 2007 in recent reports.

Its a move that makes Creative look more schizophrenic than savvy. After angering Creative Zen owners by removing FM recording during a non-critical software update Creative has inexplicably and with little official fanfare, restored FM recording as a feature with the latest firmware update.

Creative's move to strike the FM recording ability in its Zen mp3 players was seen as a preemptive move to keep the RIAA and its member companies at bay after similar functionality became the subject of a lawsuit against XM Satellite Radio.

The only question left is, how long until Universal Music Group's CEO Doug Morris demonizes owners of FM capable Zen devices and lights a fire under his team of lawyers? Any guesses?

[via Epizenter]

This is a really cool idea. Integrated Mobile Electronics is showing off this universal mp3 player dock at the anual SEMA conference (where all the auto makers and accessory people hang out and droll over shiny things). The dock achives it's near universal capabilites with interchangable dock modules, leaving the rest of the system totally intact. IME's new toy should ship with the ability to connect the iPod, Zune, Creative Zen Vision, Sandisk Sansa e2xx, and the iRiver Clix.

The iPod has a definate advantage when it comes ot in car integration. An estimate says 70% of new cars are optionable with an interface to Apple's popular mp3 player, and that's great news for the heath and safety people; the more tightly integrated your mp3 player to your in-car audio, the less attention you lose in fiddling with the controls. If more manufacturers switched to something like the IME device, it could help to weaken Apple's total stranglehold on in-car intergration.

[via Anything But iPod]

The latest front in the war against your fair use rights is radio recording. Creative has tucked a nasty surprise into a firmware update to its Zen models which removes the ability to record live FM radio and save it as an mp3 file. The firmware update forces you to choose; either take the update to get Audible support video zooming and better language support or, skip firmware updates from here on out and keep your FM recording ability.

The RIAA sued XM radio months ago for it's purpose built XM2go device which allows users to record satellite radio, a device designed to specifically live within existing Fair Use recording laws. Creative's move may have been prompted by the perceived pressure of a possible lawsuit as well, although the feature removed from Creative's Zen falls clearly under the Home Recording Act.

[via Engadget]