RIP Zune

The Bloomberg agency , citing an informed source inside Microsoft, reports that the corporation has decided to stop the release of the Zune line of players. Due to low demand for devices, no new devices will be released, and Microsoft will concentrate on integrating the functionality currently available in the player with the Windows Phone 7 platform, which is now given a "mobile" preference.

The decision does not look random or sudden - Zune has not changed since mid-2009, when the HD model was released, although several major software updates were released. Definitely, the idea of ​​curtailing production of Zune has been in the headquarters of MS for a long time, but until recently it was not clear what fate awaits the player.

Zune will remain alive as the Software-and-Services platform, and Windows Phone 7 will take on the vivid features of the player for playing music on mobile phones, the Zune Marketplace for selling music, and the Zune PC for synchronizing media, firmware, and other data will also go there.



Since its introduction in 2006, Zune has tried to fight for the market with its main rival, the Apple iPod line of players. The latest HD model, released in 2009, had almost all the benefits of an iPod. It was, indeed, a good player, made of excellent materials, in an attractive design. Unfortunately, its release happened too late. The advantage of the Apple App Store at that time was already obvious, and Zune could not outweigh the variety of applications of the apple store (Zune HD is comparable in price and characteristics with iPod Touch).

One of the conditions for the weak distribution of Zune outside the United States was that Microsoft did not make any efforts to actually promote the player outside the United States. As a result, Apple very quickly gained a dominant position in the global market for players and mobile devices, with 77% of the market last year.

Rumors hovering around the Zune brand in recent months have led speculation that the brand will most likely be renamed, or killed in one blow. What can still happen - Microsoft has not yet received official confirmation.

However, the decision to roll out the independent Zune platform is obvious now: it is expensive, time- and energy-consuming. It is possible that this will serve as the first step towards a total change in the form factor of the platform, code-named “Ventura”.

Among other things, the decision to discontinue production of Zune suggests that in the future Microsoft is unlikely to try to repeat Apple’s passes, releasing equivalents of apple products on the Windows Phone 7 platform - a telephone platform without the phone itself (however, this turned out to be good for Android). But personally, it seems to me that the success of the iPad will still haunt Microsoft, and that again, having created a cartridge, it will not be able to choose the right weapon for it.

Bloomberg via CrunchGear via Wired