Edward J.R. over at MSMobiles has just posted about a new strategy over at Microsoft to integrate their recently-purchased Musiwave company into the future of the Zune service and other streams. He writes:

Musiwave division, formerly a company that Microsoft purchased for $46 million, stops offering services to operators/carriers and instead Musiwave technology will be reused in Zune; Musiwave services were offering to operators/carriers infrastructure to earn additional money by selling ringtones, music and videos.

clearly Microsoft is re-focusing now to make out of Zune a valid competitor to iTunes of Apple.

Xbox and Zune have higher priority than Windows Mobile and thus Zune service probably will come to Xbox and to “Pink” phones before Windows Mobile. We expect that at the earliest around Summer 2010 the Windows Mobile 7 should be ready and it should have integrated Zune service

I’m not sure if he took that straight from some Microsoft exec, but he concludes that Microsoft wants in on the lucrative online music biz that Apple has such a stranglehold on. True for sure, but I think it goes beyond the direct revenue from music sales – Microsoft wants to own the experience gadget/mobile/entertainment experience like Apple does.

We can expect to see the Zune Service offered across the board from Microsoft: X-box, Windows Mobile (7) and the Zune, not to mention tight integration with Windows Media Player and full-on Windows 7.  And to one-up Apple, as they surely need to do in order to make up lost ground, Microsoft has already offers an attractive flat-rate plan whereby you can download as many songs as you like, but only keep 10 per month. This trumps Apple’s pay-per-song and 30-second sample.