Just in time for the holiday buying rush, Microsoft has released version 3.1 of its Zune software and dropped prices on the flash-based versions of its Zune media players.
The price cuts from $10 to $30 off the suggested retail price of flash-based Zune units, with the 4 GB player seeing the largest drop from $129.99 to $99.99 (making the $69.99 Apple charges for a 2 GB iPod shuffle look a little stingy). The 8 GB version of the Zune drops from $149.99 to $139.99, and the 16 GB edition drops from $199.99 to $179.99. Microsoft has also dropped the prices on its Car, Dock, and AV packs from $!0 to $20.
