Zune Train May Be Running Out of Steam

Zune, oh friend of ours, you've had a rough year so far. First there was the whole 30GB seizures thing at the end of 2008. Now comes a read between the lines item in the news which suggests your days may be numbered.

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, was cornered and interviewed this week at CES by the Financial Times. Questions led to asking about the Zune and the Zune phone rumors. We pick it up from there:

In digital music, meanwhile, Mr Ballmer seemed all but ready to throw in the towel on the Zune mobile device, which has failed to gain ground on Apple’s iPod. But he suggested that the focus of competition in digital media was moving onto ground that Microsoft understands well: software.

He said that, with the market for dedicated portable media players in decline, the future lay in more “general purpose” devices – such as Apple’s iPhone and touch.

Asked if Microsoft would counter with a “Zune Phone”, Mr Ballmer said: “You should not anticipate that.” He added that the company would stick to its strategy of developing software to support a range of mobile devices. That suggests that, if there is a future for Zune, it lies in planting the software and online service linked to the player in other devices.

What do you think? Will the Zune go the way of the dodo this year?

Comments

[John]

i'm really not interested in any "zune phone" cuz i have a perfectly good looking phone that doesn't need any gizmos or gadgets other than calling and playing a few songs.

What I do want is something that will wow me like it did when the last hardware update came for the Zune 80 2 years ago. I dont care about how many more gigs it can store (because 120 is more than enough) as long as it will make my friends want to ask if they could play with it like i do with their Itouch/phone.

I've been holding on as much as i can to not conform to something totally awesome, but I don't know how much longer i can wait (probably till this Winter).

[Anonymous]

WHO cARES ABOUT A STUPID "ZPHONE"! we have enough as is! just drop it!

[ACE]

[pingback]

http://www.zuneboards.com/content/view/619/1/

BTW - this is all epic fail... The ZuneInsider even says so... http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2009/01/09/a-note-on-the-zune-buzz.aspx