One of the more intriguing elements of the Zune announcement was Microsoft’s promise that the devices would include several dozen pieces of preloaded audio and video content (we’ll be polite and leave it to others to make fun of the quality of that content). Various sources wonder to Billboard whether this will be a new trend. The SanDisk Sansa e200 has 20 songs on board, iriver has a preload deal with eMusic, and the player SanDisk is developing with Rhapsody will come with 32 hours preloaded. It might be a great new distribution medium for performers (even if we haven’t heard any rumblings of a second band-branded device like the U2 iPod), but it’s easy to wonder whether this will work — or will media players will be received like Windows PCs: the first thing new buyers do is delete the unwanted content and applications?
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