Microsoft Zune to be launched by Nov
San Francisco: Microsoft's Zune MP3 player will hit US stores on November 14 this year and would be priced at $249.99. Content for devices would be available at a Zune online store that will open for business the same day, said Microsoft Corp.

A press release issued by the company quoted Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune as saying, "We're delivering not only a device, but a shared, social experience that will be shaped by the collective imagination of consumers." He added that Zune devices will play short video and film clips as well as music.
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BenQ Mobile GmbH faces insolvency
Munich: Mobile phone maker BenQ said it will stop making investments in its German subsidiary, BenQ Mobile GmbH. The company's German operations are facing insolvency with 3,000 jobs at risk.

Operations in Germany include the company headquarters here with about 1,400 workers and another 1,600 jobs in its manufacturing site in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany, as well as an undisclosed number of employees at a design center in Poznan, Poland, and a manufacturing site in Manaus, Brazil.

BenQ plans to continue its Asian-based handset operations and the Siemens BenQ brand, a company spokesperson said. The payment stop will make an insolvency of the German subsidiary unavoidable, the spokesperson said.

Since BenQ took over the ailing Siemens mobile phone operation, losses have reached 840 million euros (about $1.07 billion), a spokesman said.
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