5 Directions That Microsoft's Zune HD Needs To Take

(3) Windows Mobile 7 & Seamless Integration

It would be great to have Windows Mobile 7 in the next Zune HD. Details of the next version of Microsoft's Mobile are still sketchy and although it was due to be released this year, chances for that actually happening are slim. 

So it could mean that Zune HD will have to be launched with WM6.5 before getting a massive software upgrade in early 2010. The next Zune will also need to patch up all the software shortcomings of the existing model including the (missing) WiFi music syncing, better support for audio and video podcasts as well as tighter integration with existing Windows platforms.

(4) Online Ecosystem

Apple has iTunes. Microsoft has Zune Marketplace, Windows Marketplace for Mobile and a plethora of other ways of confusing its customers. Microsoft should get its "iTunes", a comprehensive, integrated environment that may or may not run within the browser but needs to provide with all the necessary bells and whistles that Apple currently offer but better. 

If Spotify and Firefox (with Ubiquity) have shamelessly copied iTunes's multi frame design, why not Microsoft? The software giant needs to catch up with Apple. Make all content - video, audio, applications, firmware - available from a single point, just like iTunes.

(5) Free and Incentivise

Microsoft has a little something called Zune Pass which allows you to download millions of tracks every month and keep 120 per year. 

All for only $180 per year. Why not copy Nokia's Comes With Music structure and either bump the price of the monthly subscription or allow partnering mobile phone networks to give it away for free on selected contracts. 

Ultimately, the Zune and Microsoft-based smartphones are two converging segments which are bound to merge at some point in the future.

The software giant also needs to proactively encourage its huge developer userbase to take on the task of coding for its new mobile platform as well. (ed: what about selling to territories outside America).