MS Zune hardware really is dead. Microsoft has re-posted the end-of-life notice it put up on its website last week and then took it down a day later. "We will no longer be producing Zune players," it says. Microsoft hasn't revised its Zune hardware since 2009, which tells you all you need to know about its commitment to the …
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Has Xbox or Windows Mobile ever been profitable?
Only in accountant speak where they disregard what went before any old talk about the current quarter.
Since inception, the Entertainment and Devices division of Microsoft has lost over $12bn, partly due to Zune, but mostly due to Xbox.
I bought a Zune HD (imported from the states due to the lack of a UK release) and was really impressed by it. The screen, while small, is absolutely gorgeous and the sound quality is superb even using the bundled earphones. I for one will be sad to see them go, though I suppose with even cheap feature phones packing a competent media player nowadays the death of the PMP is pretty much inevitable.
"with even cheap feature phones packing a competent media player nowadays the death of the PMP is pretty much inevitable."
I think that that is at least as much the point here for Redmond as the Zune-player's not so stellar sales record. The smartphones and the good quality featurephones are in practice killing the stand alone media player and the compact digital camera (plus a whole list of other devices dependent on which apps the owner has installed). It simply is not worth the effort from MS' point of view.
...and I love it. The interface is beautiful, sound quality is great (not perfect, but far above any iPod I've owned) and it works like a dream. I only use it for listening to music and for the occassional video podcast. Okay, so it doesn't have many apps, but I don't need them. It's built like a brick shit house and (in my view) looks good too. I also love the artist biog it pulls in (and photos). Oh and the battery lasts forever.
It's not exactly a surprise, but it is a shame nonetheless.
As family of the (very) top brass on this, I can confirm that there were no such instructions. I "might" have been able to get one at a discount (didn't ask), but there was no underhanded marketing ploys involving freebies to families (much to my annoyance).
The (boring) fact is that MS employees can use any device they choose for their work & personal lives. In my experience they chose the Zune cos it was better than the iPod. They currently choose the iPhone, cos it's better than any Windows phones...so far. And they use dual boot Macs.
(Oh and they play on Xbox & PS3 & Wii & PSP & 3DS. But of course they would. They're MS, they're rich! But don't play on PC. Because they're not nuts).
So anyway the fact is, it's a shame this gadget is gone, cos it was apparently a good one.
As family of the (very) top brass on this, I can confirm that there were no such instructions. I "might" have been able to get one at a discount (didn't ask), but there was no underhanded marketing ploys involving freebies to families (much to my annoyance).
The (boring) fact is that MS employees can use any device they choose for their work & personal lives. In my experience they chose the Zune cos it was better than the iPod. They currently choose the iPhone, cos it's better than any Windows phones...so far. And they use dual boot Macs.
(Oh and they play on Xbox & PS3 & Wii & PSP & 3DS. But of course they would. They're MS, they're rich! But don't play on PC. Because they're not nuts).
Basically it's a shame this gadget is gone, cos it apparently was a good one.
BTW That was in response to the comment "Other than family of MS top brass who were told to use a Zune, does anyone else have one or care?". But that bit got lost in the post.
Oh and to further muddy the waters of my impartiality - I have a new ipod and i'm buggered if I can get it to play podcasts in any sort of sensible order (or marked them as listened to when listened to, and not listened to when not listened to).
Have 3 iPod Touch players in the family over a couple of generations.
I think the Touch will be the last PMP standing, though obviously these devices (and even the Nano) are far more than simple media players with the number of games and other apps available for them.
I can't imagine what the anon poster could be doing to have problems with podcasts, but in my experience, the podcast functionality is a perfect example of Apple getting it right.
iTunes automatically downloads new episodes of say SGU every week, it gets copied to my player, I listen to it on the bus, it retains my position in the podcast, then once I finish listening, it removes it. If there are several episodes then it defaults to playing them oldest to newest (which makes sense). Yes, you can right-click on a podcast and mark it as listened to or not.
Can't imagine people bothering to manually manage a bunch of podcasts on other systems that didn't work like that.
Microsoft thinks Zune owners, who's devices they just orphaned will rush out to buy a Windphone7...
I think anybody who sees this maybe-maybe not support from M$ and also remembers everybody who used Microsoft's DRM and lost all the music they purchased, is going to buy just about anything EXCEPT another Microshuft product...
Zune? I've never seen one in the wild. Do have a WinPhone, not much different from an iPhone - though the browser seems to work better. Music and video are no different than the iPhone that I had before.
Now, the Zune software (on Windows) is exponentially superior to iTunes. Takes no time to start up and use. Very good design.
But for ultimate music player, I think the Nano 6th Generation takes that award. Tiny, cheap, touch-screen, great battery life. All the abilities of a standard iPod in a very compact package.
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