Microsoft stops Zune production

SOFTWARE HOUSE Microsoft has announced that it will no longer produce Zune players and will instead focus on Windows Phone.

Microsoft's Zune was the opposite of a success and with the portable music market sewn up by Apple and its Ipod the fact that Microsoft kept selling it for so long is a mystery.

In a statement posted to the Zune player web site the company promised to keep looking after its customers, however many of them there may be.

"We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players. So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing," said Microsoft and its Zune web site.

"Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our very last devices. Customer service has been, and will remain a top priority for us."

Few people have seen a Zune in the wild, so this means that its users are a very endangered species. Microsoft might get some sort of stake in the music player business via its Windows Phones, particularly if Nokia helps it with hardware, but you have to wonder why it bothered for so long anyway.

The Zune was announced in 2006 after the first generation Ipod and was initially limited to US consumers. By the time Microsoft launched it elsewhere the company was also looking at also-ran status in the marketplace.

Although it doggedly tried to make the devices seem relevant, Microsoft started measuring Zune for its coffin earlier this year when it announced that it would no longer develop software for it. Then, it suggested that its efforts were better spent elsewhere. Unfortunately perhaps, that means Windows Phone. µ