The End: Microsoft officially axes Zune brand

14 years ago

“Microsoft is sending Zune to the pasture where Microsoft brands go to die,” Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times. “It’s the end of the road for a name that once symbolized Microsoft’s grand plans to curb Apple’s entertainment ambitions.”

“A Microsoft spokeswoman, Melissa Stewart, confirmed that the Zune brand is going away so Microsoft can use the better-known Xbox brand for its entertainment services, including its online video service,” Wingfield reports. “Ms. Stewart said Zune Music customers who created playlists using the old service would still have access to those songs through the new Xbox Music service.”

Wingfield reports, “The Zune was a failure in the market, coming too late to stop the iPod juggernaut and falling short of the high bar Apple had set. A version of the player that came out in 2009, the Zune HD, did little better. In the meantime, Apple shifted most of its focus in digital entertainment to the iPhone and iPad. This shift eventually sank in at Microsoft, too. The company discontinued the Zune line of music players and the brand lived on [until now] as a music and video service for Xbox and the Windows Phone operating system.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Through our laughter, we’re also a tad misty-eyed as we trot out one of our favorite graphics for the last time:

Ah, the memories. Oh, what the heck, let’s relive it a bit more for closure’s sake:

Some photographs really do speak a thousand words. This one from Christmastime 2006 pretty much says it all:

Adios, Zune. Too little, too late. Yet another Microsoft failure.

“All the way back on July 25, 2006, I told you so.” – SteveJack

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fernando” for the heads up.]