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The end of the Zune player era, redux

Oct 8, 2011 10:27 pm by Kip Kniskern | 13 comments

Finally. We don’t even want to go through the whole story again, it’s too embarrassing, but after a number of miscues, the Zune player has been (we hope) finally put to rest.� The notice on the Zune.net players support page, announcing that “we will no longer be producing Zune players”, after pulling a disappearing act last week, is back.

Of course, we haven’t heard from @ZuneSupport as of yet, as the Twitter account seems to have final say on what counts as a Zune announcement, but for now, we can move on. Now we’re just left to wonder what the future will hold for Zune Marketplace, Zune Pass, the Zune software, and the newly merged Xbox Live and Zune marketing efforts.

What do you think, should Microsoft keep the Zune brand? Should it just become Xbox Live Music, or some entirely new brand? With this week’s antics as a topper to a long series of miscues, Microsoft seems to be intent on doing as much damage as possible to a Zune brand that never had much going for it to begin with, and although we have always liked Zune, nothing would surprise us after this week’s debacle.

via @tromboneforhire

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http://twitter.com/bcastl Brandon Casteel
I really hope they keep the Zune brand, personally. I like it. However, my guess is, they’ll rename it something eventually.
http://twitter.com/MasterDevwi William Devereux
Matt Akers and Brian Seitz also confirmed this news on the latest episode of Windows Phone Radio.
tutankhamun
A million strong for the brand. It is the pride of windows phone.
http://www.wpdownunder.com Sheeds
http://www.wpdownunder.com/?p=2862� Sad, sad way to end the ZuneHD’s (and hardware) life :(
http://www.win7guru.tumblr.com Win7Guru
Here are my 2 cents. I want Zune to become a service, rather than a brand. I would also like Microsoft to recreate the Zune Desktop Player, but for anyone and not just users with Zunes. Am I off base?
- Chris
  Yeah. The new windowsq media player. The EU may bitch. Like they always do. And Microsoft will loose money as they have to make a Damn OS with out media player.
http://gcoupe.wordpress.com Geoff Coupe
While Microsoft may have killed off their Zune hardware, they seem to have decided to using the infrastructure used by Zune as the basis to support the application Marketplace for Windows Phone. The problem being that once you create an account in the Marketplace, and define your country of residence, you cannot change that country, nor even delete your account. I find this last point almost incredible.
I can close my Windows Live ID account, but I can never close my Zune account? Which bright spark thought that one up?
http://macrosofter.wordpress.com/ quikboy
“the Zune player has been (we hope) finally put to rest.”
Why? The fact people are sad and disappointed, kinda indicates people would love Zune devices to continue, because they’re great quality players, regardless of the attention the company puts in marketing it. I wonder if they’ll pull a GoG (Good Ol’ Games) trick, and actually start a new launch. One could hope on that. Or maybe find a new resurgance if Windows Phone ever gets popular enough, so people might like a non-phone version (like iPhone and iPod Touch).
- Chris
  if they do that they might as well just have an Xbox mobile. Run the Windows Phone 7 OS (with out the phone) apps, games, media etc
Peter Terry Md
Zune was a market research project. Zune brand has little respect but the software that resulted from thus project is best in class. MSFT should use that asset under another name, and make it parts of three screens and a cloud. Strategy. Because of the windows market dominance, iTunes is headed for extinction but Zune asset will be part of the all encompassing windows Xbox wp7 universe.
Dragun
Microsoft should have sold it in more countries. They shut out over have the world and now they are opening up Zune Pass. Whoopy.
I purchased my Zune HD in the US. I am in Canada a lot, but there never was one here. I guess to Microsoft this was the best way, to consumers it was just plain stupid.
Vasudev
Hear
it from Microsoft– End of Zune devices
I think this is the first to hear about the End of Zune Devices, direct from Microsoft
Vasudev
The URL didn’t got posted so here its again-
http://vasudevg.blogspot.com/2011/10/hear-it-from-microsoft-end-of-zune.html
Hear it from Microsoft– End of Zune devices I think this is the first to hear about the End of Zune Devices, direct from Microsoft