MUMBAI: Marking the next big milestone in the music gadget industry - that's the Zune digital media player, Microsoft's musical reply to Apple's iPod is finally hiting Canada.

The Zune media player is designed around the principles of sharing, discovery and networking and it should create new ways for consumers to connect and share entertainment experiences globally. Zune's digital technology will allow users to share songs, playlists and photos between other Zune devices.Microsoft wants to give its Canadian consumers a different experience from the iPod by allowing users to play music, videos and photos on a screen, the player will also include wireless technology and a built-in FM radio tuner which the iPod currently lacks. If that's not all, users will also be able to paste their Zune cards to social networking site Facebook, blogs or other websites to show others what they are listening to.

The Zune device will come in three different sizes 80GB, 8GB and 4GB.The three models can be customized and will be available in three stylish colours - black, red and pink. Microsoft Canada's Zune product manager, Elana Zur spoke about the new launch in a recent report. "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'," he said.

The first generation of the Zune media player has sold 1.2 million units in the United States alone.Users can download Zune software to their computers and join the Zune online community to enjoy and browse through a cataloge of music and artist profiles but music bought from Apple's iTunes won't work on a Zunedigital media player.