Microsoft is Ready to Give Up on the Zune...

**jammin' jamey** · 01-10-2009, 12:48 PM

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily

The Zune, Microsoftâs portable music player that attempted to wrestle away some of Appleâs digital music dominance, may be ready to âthrow in the towel.â The Financial Times spoke to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who said the company might discontinue the device after it failed to achieve a fraction of the popularity the iPod has attained. Instead, Bill Gates and co. will focus on developing a âgeneral purposeâ device, kind of like an iPhone or that Blackberry we see so many commercials for.
The Zune arrived with high hopes in November 2006, boasting Wi-Fi capability and FM radio â two features absent from the iPod â as well as a bigger screen.

~~Magicjefferson25~~ · 01-10-2009, 02:20 PM

I hate to hear this if they do throw in the towel. I have had my original 30 gig zune since they came out in 06 and i still use it to this day. They always have great updates for it every couple of months to further the zune experience. I love watching movies on mine and playing the texas hold em game they have added to it along with the other games.

**ComfortEagle** · 01-10-2009, 02:24 PM

The Zune was a failure to begin with. They were dumb to try and compete with the iPod.

~~Magicjefferson25~~ · 01-10-2009, 03:05 PM

IMO the zune is better than the ipod...some people just cant get past the whole ipod name though. i think that is what hurts the zune.

**thetribe** · 01-10-2009, 04:46 PM

People only have one real problem with the iPod and that was iTunes because of those copyright things they have on songs but now they are releasing those, starting to charge as low as .69 per song, etc. The Touch was the answer to end the Zune I believe. Now the Zune doesn't boast the bigger screen, WiFi, and games over the iPod. I LOVE my Touch. Best $300 you could spend.

Protect_This_House26 · 01-10-2009, 11:32 PM

Before the Touch, Zune was better.

**thetribe** · 01-11-2009, 02:23 AM

Maybe that's why Zune is going down now and not then?

**ComfortEagle** · 01-11-2009, 02:30 AM

iPod had been around longer, collecting more of a following. Also, when the Touch came out...yes, that was the end of Zune and Microsoft did nothing to combat it.

It would be like if Sony came out with a Playstation 3, but Microsoft said, nah, we won't make an XBOX 360. (I know the chronology is off on that one, but bear with me)

Again, more people liked and trusted Apple and the iPod over the Zune.

**thetribe** · 01-11-2009, 02:37 AM

Apple and iPod had built up their reputation over time, you are right CE. At first buying a Zune seemed liked buying one of those brands that you'd never heard of from an eBay seller over in Hong Kong. You could buy a Zune that promised more capacity and features than an iPod but did buyers REALLY know what they were getting for their money. Over time Zune built up their reputation as well but like CE said, since they aren't coming out with something that tops the iPod Touch, they might as well be going under.

**Midee1** · 01-20-2009, 05:08 PM

thetribe Wrote:People only have one real problem with the iPod and that was iTunes because of those copyright things they have on songs but now they are releasing those, starting to charge as low as .69 per song, etc. The Touch was the answer to end the Zune I believe. Now the Zune doesn't boast the bigger screen, WiFi, and games over the iPod. I LOVE my Touch. Best $300 you could spend.

Sadly now you can buy the IPhone which has the same features as the Touch PLUS being a phone to boot for 199.00.

The only reason I say this is that I bought my middle son a Touch and shortly after that they came out with the 3G IPhone for 199.00. I upgraded my old IPhone for the 3G.

How can they produce a device that does more and costs less?