The Zune update is expected to transform Microsoft’s product in a serious competitor for Apple’s portable media player. With only 4 % of the market, a new set of add-ons was highly needed.

After the announcement made Monday about the 800 downloadable episodes, including popular titles such as COMEDY CENTRAL’s “South Park,” MTV’s “The Hills,” NBC’s “The Office” or “Heroes,” SCI FI Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica,” Starz’s “Ghost in the Shell,” UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter” or VH1’s “Rock of Love,” which will be available for $1,99 each, a new feature for the software might further boost the sales: Zune’s users will be able to download their friends nine most recently played songs and also the first nine songs tagged as favorites.

The direction chosen by Microsoft is based on today’s trend for strong social relationships, which can also be strengthened through such a music exchange.

The mobile music service called Zune Pass is needed in order to trade tunes and it is available for $14.99 / month.

The playlists will be automatically updated every time the portable media player will be connected to a PC.

The "new" Zunes, launched late last year, are available in models of 4GB ($149.99), 8GB ($199.99), 30GB ($199.99) and 80GB ($249.99). Of course, the last two models feature a hard drive instead of flash memory. For the same $250 price as the 80GB iPod classic, the new Zune 2.0 80GB offers a much larger screen, a FM radio, wireless player-to-player sharing, Wi-Fi syncing with your PC, and a rear panel that can be customized with some cool artwork. This makes the Zune a much better deal for those who aren't necessarily Apple fans.

"Right now there is really only one dominant player, and with Zune coming to the market now, in June, it just offers people with another credible alternative where they can say 'I actually get to decide which one is right for me,' " said Elana Zur, Microsoft Canada's Zune product manager according to the Canadian Press.