• by ryan.y , March 14, 2011

Today we pay our respects to a device that has a special place in my heart. Initially rumors, Microsoft was thought to be discontinuing its line of Zune media players. A recent report from Bloomberg seems to confirm that the software giant is indeed putting the final nail in the Zune's coffin. The Zune originally released in 2006 was Microsoft's answer to Apples iconic iPod (on its fifth generation at the time) in an attempt to cut into the hardware manufactures daunting market share.

At the time the Zune offered several advantages that the current iPod lacked such as FM radio, a much larger screen, and offered users unlimited access to music through a subscription service (something Apple still has yet to do), but even with its advantages Zune hardware sales continued to dip. What caused the dip? Who knows, it may have been the lack of updates to the hardware, the last refresh occurred in 2009 with the Zune HD.

Another theory I have is that the mp3 player market is so heavily entrenched with Apple products that its hard for consumers to switch brands to anything that doesn’t have an i in front of its name. Also, smart phones have become an increasingly popular alternative to MP3 players due to their similar functions and ability to stream music from applications such as AOL and Pandora Radio.

Either way Microsoft has seen it fit to pull the plug on a well-designed piece of hardware. I find it hard to choke down mainly because this eliminates one of the few quality brands of MP3 players on the market that's not Apple made. I have nothing against iPods, but when I shop, I like there to be a strong collection of brands to choose from.

As the Zune player passes into memory, its spirit lives on in its software. While Microsoft admits that the hardware will eventually be phased out, the company will instead focus on the Zune software and continue to provide services to Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7.