Microsoft to issue fix for Zune glitch

Microsoft is planning to issue a firmware update next month designed to fix a glitch that is causing some owners of its Zune music player to experience skipping when playing songs purchased from Microsoft's online store.

Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp said the company plans to issue the update sometime in the middle of this month. He said the downloadable update will also offer other performance improvements but no major feature updates to the player, which debuted in November.

He added that the update will also "improve overall software reliability and efficiency".

Reindorp said the Zune held its number two spot in hard drive-based digital music players in January, citing NPD numbers that give Microsoft 9.9 per cent of the market. The company still trails Apple's iPod in the hard drive-based music area and does not yet have a flash-based device to compete with the iPod Nano or Shuffle.

Reindorp added: "We believe this toehold in the market will enable us to make a deeper footprint as time goes on and we're committed to expanding the Zune offering."

He declined to say when the company might add more devices or start selling video content, adding that Redmond is focused on making the music experience on the current device the best it can be.

He said Microsoft did see its base of subscription customers grow by 60 per cent in January over the prior month and individual song downloads increased 65 per cent in the same period. The software behemoth would not give specific figures. "Those numbers are still relatively small," Reindorp said. "But this growth is exactly what we hoped it would be."

Microsoft updated the Zune in December to allow both the device and the desktop Zune software to work properly with Windows Vista.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com