Zune update taking longer than expected

The software maker said last month to expect a patch in mid-March. The update is designed to address a couple of issues, including one that causes some songs downloaded from Microsoft's online Zune Marketplace store to skip when played on the device.

Microsoft isn't giving a new time frame, but marketing director Jason Reindorp said in an e-mail that "it is very close to being ready."

"The original date was an estimate based on how long we thought it would take to finish development work and put the update through normal testing processes," Reindorp said. "As with any project like this, things can sometimes take a little less time or a little more time."

Microsoft issued a Zune update in December to allow the player and the desktop Zune software to work with Windows Vista.