The Zune music player was never launched in Australia, like a lot of other Microsoft consumer products, but in the US the giant software company had high hopes for their music player as they attempted to take on the Apple iPod.Now the Zune is dead, a lot like Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Phone 7 offering.
After years of mediocrity and weak sales, Microsoft is finally killing off its Zune media player, Bloomberg reports with the company claiming that in the future they will concentrate on software development, which is currently under threat from a surging Google who are stripping market share away from Microsoft in the browser market and in the phone market with their Android OS offering.
In coming months Google is set to role out a Chrome OS for notebooks. They are also challenging Microsoft’s Office suite of products with their own applications.
“This is the right move. Microsoft should be focusing all of its portable-gadget efforts on Windows Phone 7, to try and compete with Apple and Google there” said Dan Frommer at Bloomberg.
Microsoft will continue to sell existing versions of the Zune, Bloomberg reports, but will not introduce new ones.
