Zune Apps: Free, but with ads |
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Zune Apps: Free, but with ads
Microsoft is launching a limited number of free apps with the new Zune HD, hoping to make up for its lack of a full-blown third-party application store, as explained in our post earlier this week. But Ars Technica today discovered that some of the apps come with a surprise -- ads that appear on screen when you launch them.
I tried it out myself with a review unit, and sure enough, there was a video ad for the Kia Soul when I launched the game Space Battle 2. It wasn't long, as you can see in the video below, but it was long enough to create a significant gap between the moment I tried to launched the game and the point where I actually got to play it.
The ads appear to show up only in the games so far. I've asked Microsoft for an explanation of its approach, and I'll update this post depending on the response. Among other things, I'm curious to find out whether ads will be incorporated into Facebook and Twitter apps when they're launched for the Zune HD later this fall.
It's an interesting business strategy, and novel for a music device, but it will be even more interesting to see how Zune HD users react to it.
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