“Microsoft Corp. will cease introducing new versions of the Zune music and video-player amid tepid demand, helping the company shift its focus to mobile phones, according to a person familiar with the decision,” Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg.
“The company will concentrate on putting Zune software onto mobile phones such as those running Microsoft’s Windows operating system, said the person, who declined to be identified because the decision hasn’t been announced,” Bass reports. “Zune software lets customers buy songs and movies, as well as pay a monthly fee to stream unlimited music.”
Bass reports, “Microsoft will continue to sell existing versions of the Zune, the person familiar with the matter said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Puleeze. To whom are Microsoft going to sell dead-end pretend iPods with no future development? The eleven existing Zune owners (a mix of IT doofuses and Ballmers)? Just grow a pair for once and issue the press release: Zune players are dead.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: By SteveJack: Told ya so. 😉
Next on the chopping block: Microsoft Retail Stores.
Related articles:
Opinion: More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Microsoft pulls plug on Zune – July 25, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Germany’s Maxfield files for bankruptcy – February 20, 2008
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Microsoft pulls plug on Portable Media Center – May 09, 2007
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell’s ‘DJ Ditty’ flash-based MP3 player is dead – August 22, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell dumps ‘DJ’ hard-drive MP3 player line – February 04, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver gives up on digital media player market – May 23, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Sony’s Walkman Bean is cooked – February 13, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver pulling out of Europe? – February 01, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Thomson gives up on MP3 player, CE markets – December 12, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: BenQ withdraws from MP3 player markets – November 28, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Olympus halts production of portable digital music players – November 09, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Rio is dead – August 26, 2005
Apple’s iPod has blood on its Click Wheel: Virgin Electronics is dead – March 08, 2005
Why am I not surprised?
What’s next Balmer?
Will Thurrott, Enderle, Dvorak, Bill & Melinda Gates & their two kids have to carry vinyl records under their armpits with them now whenever they want to listen to portable music in the absence of a Zune?
I almost feel sorry for the those MS children. Can you imagine what it must feel like when everyone else has iPods or iPhones and they have to walk around with Zunes. Well, I guess they really understand what Bill went through as a kid.
I have a friend who got a “zune hd” for christmas, I felt sorry for him 🙁
he told me that the “app store” for it has “20 games”…. all made by Microsoft (now /that/ sounds 1984 ish)
he has an old ipod but I think what he was looking for was more of a handheld computer (like an ipod touch).
He is a bit of a fan of Microsoft though…
What do they do now? Thank DJ Ballms for WP7 I guess…
Don’t feel bad, maybe now they can actually get an iPod now that there are no other options.
Nah.
Thurrott has been talking about the demise of the Zune brand for at least 3 weeks, but his kids all have iPod Touches, so he won’t be missing any tunes.
OMFG! Thurrott reproduced!
Re: MS children. No iPads either.
Beating a dead horse. I didn’t know you could still buy those things.
Mmmm. Barbeque!
Zune Tang, are you there?
Now he’ll be just plain old “Tang.”
or maybe Win7PhoneTang??
i may the only one, but i always thought zune t. was a girl…my gf thought the same..she said zt’s comments are the way a girl talks about technology…….then when i question her on something she says about computer stuff, she says i just don’t understand women ; > ( >
C1 ?
She’s funny too!
Please tell me you don’t talk to your girl about some dork in the MacDailyNews forums. Please Please Please tell me you’re joking.
not sure if you have a gf or have had a gf but sometimes they just go online on their own, and yes *gasp* some go to mdn…and some sit and talk (think that’s what she’s doing) while i cruise around peering at the screen time to time….she’s worth every minute of it, tho…. ; > )))
Hello Zune-Tang?..
Zunny-baby?
And the Zune was one of the better me-too M$ products…
Yep, shows how shit all their other stuff is!
Gota thank Microsoft for all the worthless crap tech that no one wants.
Next time do abit of consumer research before splashing your billions on shit that no one wants.
Who knows, you might actually sell something.
But….. but….
Where do I get *BROWN* MP3 players now?
🙁
Ding dong the witches dead….
“Microsoft Corp. will cease introducing new versions of the Zune … amid tepid demand”
– ‘Demand.’
– ‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means.’
“No more Zunes now, I mean it!”
“Anybody want a peanut?”
“Gaaaa!”
Ballmer ” Why are you smiling”
Jobs” because I am not left handed!”
@the Lone Ranger, prolly best comment on the thread
“Do you know what that sound is, Ballmer? Those are the shrieking iPods. If you don’t believe me, just wait. They always grow louder when they’re about to feed on Zune flesh!”
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!
The one Zune owner I know will be very disappointed when this goes public. I always enjoy watching him endlessly sideways-scrolling in attempts to find something, never finding it, and plugging in for a recharge.
Hahaha, sideways scrolling. Made me laugh..
The WOW stops now
I’ll never forget the original turd brown colored Zune. It was such a fitting color for that device.
Lol!
So true!
Shit colour for a shit music player – says it all really.
i vote to let zune tang keep his name.
Agreed! Also Ballmers Left Nut to grow his right one! LOL
Can you fly Bobby?
The distance between iPad2 and Zune is measured in parsecs.
Woah, who knew you could embed things into your post?
Yeah but this Zune joke is better:
Yes, yes it was.
Thank you for brightening my evening.
THE Steve is a Jedi Master & would NEVER use a gun to kill his enemies…Jedi Knight “mind tricks” or Light Saber YES! OR he could turn on his “reality distortion field” to “shock & awe” them to death!
Elegy for our Zune Tang …
Alas poor Zune, we hardly knew thee.
I didn’t know Microsoft ever “focused” on the Zune, so much so that it now has to “shift its focus” onto mobile phones.
Wasn’t Microsoft making software for phones prior to making the Zune. I seem to recall something like that . . . .
Let’s just hope that Microsoft’s new “focus” on mobile phones doesn’t take “focus” away from Windows development! Where will the world be if Windows 8 doesn’t arrive on time?!? (besides better off)
I can’t believe you gullible MAC sheep believe this sensationalist hit piece from Bloomberg, whoever they are. I wouldn’t be surprised that MAC was behind this with their RDF manipulating the truth. Typical MAC. They’re only good at marketing.
All I’m reading in these comments is wishful thinking from a bunch of cultist lemmings who can’t give up their dumpy I-Pods. There hasn’t been any innovation or imagination whatsoever in MAC’s 10-year old me-too Zunes. Fact is Zune is the future of portable media players with it’s ground-breaking color schemes, points system and delightful-to-use Zune Marketplace. Without Zune where is MAC going to generate new ideas for I-Pods?
Nothing to see here, just move along.
“Nothing to see here, just move along.”
Concise and appropriate description of the status of the Zune market. Very well put, bravo!
IT’S HAMMER TIME!!!
Zune has been caught up in such a whirlwind of success that I forgot the terms of our bet. Truth is these are exciting times to be a Zune enthusiast!
What MAC product will you be be putting out of its misery?
Nice try! But you might have lucked out today, because I can’t find the link to the original bet, no doubt because I didn’t store it in my Outlook calendar…
Maybe the MDN dwarves can help us? Searching for “Zune” “Hammer” and “Bet” turns up nothing.
In any case, if you’ll remember, the terms of the bet were something like thus:
If the Zune is ever the #1 media player by sales, I will smash my black iPod nano (still in use!) with an Estwing framing hammer.
If, conversely, the Zune is ever discontinued, you’ll smash your wondrous, award-wanting Zune.
Videos of either event were to be posted on the yootoobes.
I await your movie. =)
-c
:)p
Ah Zune…
We hardly knew ye…
That’s because nobody bought ye!
And yet, your memory will linger forever.
Farewell to the social. (And good riddance.)
But it died too Zune.
We still needed some comic relief. I guess the WonkiaSoft will provided that for a few more years. Along with HPalm, RIMQnx and MotoXoom.
I own a Zune.
It was a prize I won at Microsoft’s Scottsdale store grand opening. It took two-days to claim my prize because the store’s manager knew nothing about a Zune give-away.
Some of you might recognize her name; Lisa Seigneur. She was an Apple Store manager who was recruited by Microsoft for the Scottsdale store.
We should assume that you have kept that Zune for sheer entertainment value (as in, making fun of it, rather than using it for entertainment), and actually have an i-something device (or two)…
I’ve never been able to use it. That is until recently when Microsoft delivered an app that supports Mac.
Never bothered to download it, though.
It was a prize I won at Microsoft’s Scottsdale store grand opening.
Look on the bright side: at least, it’s lived past its warranty.
What was second prize? Two Zunes?
LOL
If I could work out Microsoft’s strategy, I’d probably like it a lot.
All that money on product development and marketing to develop a product that was practically a punch line from the day it was unveiled.
The only surprise to this announcement is that it took so damn long.
For anyone who needs a trip into the past, so that you can really appreciate this news, you can still visit
Feature Story
Q&A: Choosing a Digital Music Service for Windows Users.
“As the choices among digital music services for Windows swell, Dave Fester, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Digital Media Division, explains how the services work and what consumers should consider when choosing one.”
Dave Fester, huh? Must be Ballmer’s illegitimate lovechild.
Remember that Zune ad a few years back that showed that girl appearing to be getting raped? Now their sole eleven faithful customers have similar looks on their faces.
It’s this photo, from the zune social marketplace setup…
She’s definitely feeling the error…
That’s the one! Thanks for the back up.
It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. There last major release of the Zune was in 2009. This after launching in 2006. That and the fact that the Zune was completely absent at CES.
This is a huge mistake by Microsoft, and shows how helpless the company actually is.
Microsoft needs the Zune, but a decent, updated version of it, to have a platform of which to connect to the Xbox and to WP7 phones and eventually a tablet. Take away the Zune, and there’s a huge gap.
Microsoft had a shot at capturing a significant share of the nonPod market and developing a user base connected with the Xbox that could then graduate up to WP7 and tablets, but now it seems like Microsoft won’t do nonPods, can’t do tablets and their phones aren’t getting any traction.
What a disaster.
You’d think Microsoft would want to copy Apple’s iPod touch, by creating a WP7 without the P, leaving a WinZune7 or something hideous like that. Why are these numbnuts not creating a Touch? That’s the first step in creating an iPad, or so I’ve been told, “it’s nothing but a big iPod touch”!
Simple. “Touch” models aren’t underwritten by a mobile carrier, and they’d never ever sell for what they really cost. What’s the incentive of a hardware builder to take that risk?
As an interesting bit of schadenfreude, I came across this today, looking for a cover for my (ordered) iPad 2. Note the list of deep discounted items…
http://www.zagg.com/j/blowout-sale/index.php
Notice, there isn’t a single Apple item on the list… not even an old IPhone or iPod.
Wow, almost 5yrs before it got canned, at least it beat the Kin!
Did the Kin even survive 5 weeks?
5 days?
When will this bloodbath end?
OMG, I just realized, there’ll be no more SquirtsForSure. Whatever will we do for song sharing now?
You’ll just have to go back to squirting on yourself.
or on each other…
Should we wait to add xoom in the box? That way they can lay 6th under together…
Time to get out the Zune Amnesty Bins at Redmond 😉
I feel sorry for the children of Gates and Balmer who will at last be able to ask their parents for an IPod for Christmas
– just when everyone else is moving to the iPad.
Shouldn’t it be changed to “more blood on the touch screen” now. How about a reader’s poll MDN?
I still love the clickwheel on my 5th gen iPod nano. I cant see how something touch screen can work for me when going out to do my 5 miles workouts. I even bought a second NAno in case I broke a nan but these are some tough cookies.
Darn I was just about to trade my iPod for a Zune.
Another one bite the dust.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irylEFW6KLs&w=480&h=390%5D
Wait a minute people!
Microsoft certainly won this round. Apple played right into their hands.
Now Microsoft can pound it’s corporate chest and proclaim that the Zune is as scarce as the iPad 2!
(Just for different reasons!)
I always thought zune tang was really pedrag. But that “zune tang is a chick” comment makes way toooo much sense. For sure, without a doubt, zune tang is Chrissy one. Same humor, writing style, and intelligence. You’ve been outted Chrissy tang!
I’m also Kaiser Söze.
Not sure when the Zune hit the streets but to this day, I have never seen one. I wonder how many were actually sold. I am guessing to people who would never ever consider an AppleAnything.
“Next on the chopping block: Microsoft Retail Stores.”
All 2 of them
Ballmer and gates’ kids:
: “Thank God! Than God! we can finally get an iPod”.
In 50 years will zunes be collector items, like edsels?
I don’t believe it. They must be coming out with something new….
Oh No. they can’t get rid of dog shit brown!
All this time and I still have yet to see a Zune in the wild!
One of my students had one a while back… only Zune I ever saw in the wild – a brown one to boot. Seemed normal enough otherwise. (The student, not the Zune.)
Went to the Microsoft store and asked, “What aisle do they keep the Zunes?”
The MS employee says, “Aisle 4…”
Then I went throughout the store shouting, “Clean-up on aisle 4! Clean-upon aisle 4!”. LOL…
Methinks Zune Tang really owns macs, iPads, and iPhones. In the closet. Maybe the next headline should be:
MacDailyNews pulls plug on Zune Tang….
ZT® was clearly not alerting to the facts of the article. Here is what he should have added to his Take:
(1) The Zune is not being discontinued. It is just not being updated to a new version. The real reason is that there is no reason to update perfection. The “person familiar with the decision” clearly misunderstood. He should not have said “tepid” response. He had clearly meant “rabid” response.
(2) The success of the Zune is clear not only in having no need for a new version, but in the success of its software. No other software can guarantee the success of Windows mobile phones as can the power of Zune software. In the forward thinking of Microsoft’s visionary leader, the Zune may fold into the future of Windows’ mobile phones.
(3) The article is clearly misleading and the “person familiar with the decision” is likely a MAC lemming plant.
Take notes, ZT®! You missed all that! 🙂
As an aside, a new 15″ MBP with SSD and 8GB RAM just arrived a few days ago. It is the fastest portable computing beast I have ever seen. That, added to the added display, is absolutely untouchable. It will be tough waiting until this summer to get a second one! I am hopeful the SSD will not be slowing down over the next few years. The MBP replaced a 2003 PowerBook G4 – which has been used almost daily for all that time running more than one business, and other things. It is still working fine.
DRZ: “The WOW stops now”
Hah!! 😉
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I saw a Zune once.. I think it was in a display case at Walmart. Yes that’s it… Walmart.
~ ~ ~ In my crystal ball I see a photo in the Seattle Times of a dumpster at the back of the Microsoft campus discovered to be filled with Zunes ~ ~ ~
And now please, a moment of silence as we memorialize our dearly departed Zung Tang ®, may he rest in peace and be reincarnated into a new life of satirical commentary…
. . .
Amen.
Rest in peace sweet caricature. 😥
MDN: The eleven existing Zune owners (a mix of IT doofuses and Ballmers)?
There are 12 owners, my brother purchased one!
IT doofeses? WTF is up your ass MDN? Jeez that is tiring.
Zune.
The tech world’s most effective punchline.
It’s been on life support long enough. Bout time the plug was pulled.
“This isn’t an iPod killer. This isn’t even going to give the iPod a bad case of the sniffles.”
— tech industry analyst Michael Gartenberg, talking about the Zune, September 2006
For what it is worth, Microsoft is denying that Zune it dead:
Zune Is Not Dead
Long live Zune Tang!
Thank you @boghog! From the article:
“This year’s Zune hardware is Windows Phone 7…”
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
“… but that doesn’t mean we won’t see new devices down the line.”
HURRAY! The JOKE lives on! Zune Tang® lives on! The laughter! The hilarity! The atrocity that is Zune is here to stay!
The snarky smile is back upon my face once again.
There is no doubt about it; the iPod is a killer of so-called iPod Killers.
Long live, Xoom Tang!
Goodby Squircle. Sweet dreams, Squirt. Adios Social.
Zune now joins the Pontiac Aztek as a discontinued butt-ugly thing of the past.
The original Zune was horrendous but the HD version is a rather good improvement
Zune now joins the edsel as synonymous with massive embarrassing failure
Not a Microsoft fan boy nor do dismiss the dominance of the iPOD but I like the touch screen OS of the Zune and love it’s video play back and support along with HD radio it had everything I wanted in a player and not too much (don’t care about apps). I was never a fan of the small screens of the “normal” iPOD or the bulky over priced iTouch. So i will be one of the few hanging onto my zune till the end (or i get an GOOD windows 7 phone to replace)