I understand what you're saying about the players being two completely
separate projects. However, when I say that Zune has become a "higher
priority," I am referring to the fact that since the time WMP11 was released
(October 30, 2006) there have been three major releases of the Zune
Software. Features such as Podcasting support and now WTV file support are
in the Zune Software. Meanwhile, WMP becomes more and more stale.

When the Zune first arrived, I was very disappointed that Microsoft had
decided to follow the "Apple" way of doing things and created an end-to-end
ecosystem that was completely closed and proprietary. I much preferred the
open Portable Media Center product that MS had developed that followed the
old-school "Microsoft" way of creating software that can be used by multiple
OEMs and syncs to the much more open WMP. It could be used with many
different media stores available directly within WMP such as Urge. It was a
great design that died on the vine when the Zune was released. It's funny to
me that MS is known as the closed, anti-competition company and they're
becoming more-so by following Apple.

I have resisted replacing my aging Gigabeat S60 with a newer Zune since I
was hoping that MS would give up the "Apple" approach and combine the Zune
Software and WMP and allow both the Zune and other devices to sync with the
unified media player software. Having two competing media players within the
same company is confusing at best. I was also holding out hoping that the
next major version of Windows Mobile would come with a new, enhanced WMP
Mobile that had an interface based on PMC/Zune and that the devices would
have increased storage. It frustrates me to no end when I read articles or
hear technology pundits clamor for Microsoft to release a Zune Phone to
compete with the iPhone. I don't understand why people want MS to become
closed and proprietary like Apple.

I hope this post isn't too off-topic for this newsgroup. I have indeed tried
to follow up on the Media Center side, in such places as
microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter and the forums at thegreenbutton.com
(which is owned by MS), but I've gotten no response. I know that you don't
have any control over getting WTV files to work in WMP, and thank you for
the information that you have provided. I guess this post is more of a rant
of the frustrations from an end-user of multiple Microsoft products and you
happen to be the only MS person that's replied.  :-)

Thanks,
Yogi