Oh Zune, we hardly knew ye. Wait, that isn’t true – we knew you quite well, but obviously preferred Apple’s iPod.
Apparently we aren’t alone, because Microsoft is reportedly axing the moribund media player.
Yes, as Bloomberg so succinctly (and diplomatically) explains, Redmond will “cease introducing new versions” of the media player due to tepid demand.
However, Microsoft will continue to sell existing versions of the Zune.
This depressingly tardy decision is expected to (somehow) help the company shift its focus to mobile phones.
Still, Microsoft fanbois needn’t worry, because the Zune’s software will continue to live on as it is forcibly loaded onto Windows Phone 7 devices – which aren’t exactly selling like hotcakes, either.
*Cough*
It is perhaps worth noting that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once proclaimed the Zune could one day outsell Apple’s wildly popular iPod.
“We can beat them, but it’s not going to be easy,” he said (prophetically) in 2006.
Obviously, truer words were never spoken.
