It's Official: Zune is on its way

After a month of rumors and speculation, Microsoft has confirmed its plans to launch its own portable MP3 player, Zune (the iPod killer), in the market. Chris Stephenson, a general manager of marketing for Microsoft, issued an official statement on Friday announcing a new music and entertainment project called Zune, under which, Microsoft will launch a family of hardware and software products by the end of 2006. Stephenson also revealed that other Zune devices, including a video player, are in the pipeline. Much to the delight of music fans, the software company has confirmed Wi-Fi connectivity and a hard drive for storage for the device. Stephenson also said that Microsoft’s broader vision is to allow people to play and discover music from a variety of devices including computers, phones and the Xbox 360. Although Microsoft has not divulged details of its DRM policy for the device, it is certain that Urge, the digital music site it launched with MTV, and Zune, are going to be just like iTunes and iPod. Check out the teaser for Zune by Microsoft here , and read up on the Zune Insider Blog .