Today at the Digital Entertainment Anywhere launch event, Microsoft Corp. Chairman, Bill Gates, together with key partners announced new devices -- ranging from ultra-sleek portable music players, Portable Media Centers, Smartphones and Pocket PCs to next-generation digital audio receivers -- that make it easy to enjoy a broad range of digital entertainment throughout the home and on the go. In addition, Microsoft announced a broad range of new online music and video services to provide Windows Media® Player 10 users with even more choices in high-quality entertainment content.

When used with Microsoft® Windows Media Player 10, many of the devices announced today support entirely new entertainment scenarios for consumers, such as the ability to enjoy literally thousands of songs from a subscription service on a small portable device -- all for the price of a single CD. Device manufacturers announcing new products include portable device manufacturers Creative, Dell Inc., Gateway Inc., HP, iRiver America, Rio, Roc Digital, Samsung Electronics America and Virgin Electronics; handset maker Audiovox Corp.; and digital media receiver manufacturers D-Link Systems Inc., Linksys, Omnifi and Roku.

To provide consumers using Windows Media Player 10 with even more choice in great music, video and TV content, Microsoft today announced a dramatic expansion of the online music and video stores available in the player's Digital Media Mall. This includes new services from Audible.com, Court TV, F.Y.E. For Your Entertainment, MLB.TV, Puretracks, XM Satellite Radio and more, including the final release of MSN® Music. With today's release of Windows Media Player 10 in more than 20 additional countries, more than 30 new online music and video stores are now available directly within the player. Since its release on Sept. 2, Windows Media Player 10 has proven to be phenomenally popular among Windows® XP users, with more than 17 million copies downloaded in just the first six weeks -- a rate of approximately five per second.