Zune Rumor : Zune 2.0 for Next August

“If the person was correct and our ears didn't fail us, the next-gen Zune will be available in August. Unfortunately for the first-gen Zune team, the next version will feature gaming”. gizmodo

Let me see… We know that we should get a flash Zune before next Christmas and gaming is part of the plan for summer 2008 at the latest.

But! The release manager from the Zune team said “today” on the Zuneinsider that the first generation Zune player is not dead and Microsoft is still developing on the device:

Some of the comments I read said things like “Microsoft is abandoning this generation of Zune,” but nothing could be further from the truth. We see Zune today as simply the baseline – not the endgame. That means we’re still planning on adding features to the existing platform just like MS has done with the XBOX platform (recall that Xbox Live was not part of the initial v1 launch but was added later), plus the fact that Zune has wireless which can make the potential very interesting.

Well, can we have the first and second generation Zune alive and available at the same time? What if the first generation stays as the hard drive based Zune player and the second generation Zune is a flash Zune or Zune phone with a different set of features?

One thing is sure: Zune Rumors will gain momentum in the next few months! Stay tuned!

Zuneinsider