I just came in and turned on the TV and was simply surprised by what was on the news. Microsoft have stated that the Zune brand will be discontinued…?!
June 24, 2007 (Press Release) --
I have yet to find further information on this on the web as of, since the news itself was a rather “breaking news” too. But according to the report, Microsoft have decided to abandon the brand Zune and have decided to change its media player path so that it’ll be integrated with something mobile; something that will be able to compete against the iPhone. The report has suggested that possibly a this new phone to compete with the upcoming Apple iPhone will not have much to do with the Zune. According to a Microsoft employee, the Zune was simply a way for Microsoft to test the media player water before going in to the media player plus mobile phone market. There has also been reports that the Wi-Fi in this new gadget, unlike the rather useless Wi-Fi from the abandoned Zune project, will instead offer brand new capabilities. While nothing has been confirmed, but it has been said that talks such as wireless syncing with a computer and purchasing games via a Wi-Fi hotspot rather than using the phone browser has been brought up.
Microsoft abandoning the Zune project as a whole… I personally feel pretty betrayed about all this. What was all the talk about firmware updates? What happened to Zune in the future with better Wi-Fi? What happened to all that social? Why did Microsoft dump the whole project which they’ve spent quite a sum of money on already? Why not just release the 2nd generation of the Zune if they feel that the market share isn’t as high as they expected?
More to follow as I find more news on it. I wonder what will happen to the Marketplace and all the Points I’ve already spent on it…
Recent news reports from Chris Stephenson have suggested that along with the Zune launch in Europe at Q4, he has also proposed a flash mp3 player based on the Zune platform, along with a massive improvement with the currently limited WiFi late this year or early 2008. What does this mean?
Firstly, we’re looking at a more “lite” version of the Zune. Not everyone needs the 30GB of space that the Zune offers. Personally, I’m using less than 5 GB of my Zune as of, when only counting music. Even when including a few video clips, I only hit the 9.5 GB mark. With Samsung and SanDisk developing larger and larger flash drives, its only a matter of time until we’ll have an affordable 10+ GB flash drive. With such a “smaller” (compared to the current Zune drive) drive and a more affordable one, I’m hoping that the Zune will attract more buyers, thus actually proving their slogan, “Welcome to the social.” Not only that, but flash drive based Zune will be significantly smaller. The current Zune is in some sense, fatty. Fatter than the fattest iPod video. Not too many users are fond of the bulge in their pockets.
Source: http://www.msn.com
Microsoft abandoning the Zune project as a whole… I personally feel pretty betrayed about all this. What was all the talk about firmware updates? What happened to Zune in the future with better Wi-Fi? What happened to all that social? Why did Microsoft dump the whole project which they’ve spent quite a sum of money on already? Why not just release the 2nd generation of the Zune if they feel that the market share isn’t as high as they expected?
More to follow as I find more news on it. I wonder what will happen to the Marketplace and all the Points I’ve already spent on it…
Recent news reports from Chris Stephenson have suggested that along with the Zune launch in Europe at Q4, he has also proposed a flash mp3 player based on the Zune platform, along with a massive improvement with the currently limited WiFi late this year or early 2008. What does this mean?
Firstly, we’re looking at a more “lite” version of the Zune. Not everyone needs the 30GB of space that the Zune offers. Personally, I’m using less than 5 GB of my Zune as of, when only counting music. Even when including a few video clips, I only hit the 9.5 GB mark. With Samsung and SanDisk developing larger and larger flash drives, its only a matter of time until we’ll have an affordable 10+ GB flash drive. With such a “smaller” (compared to the current Zune drive) drive and a more affordable one, I’m hoping that the Zune will attract more buyers, thus actually proving their slogan, “Welcome to the social.” Not only that, but flash drive based Zune will be significantly smaller. The current Zune is in some sense, fatty. Fatter than the fattest iPod video. Not too many users are fond of the bulge in their pockets.
Source: http://www.msn.com
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