Yes, they still make Zunes
Bloomberg is reporting that due to poor demand, Microsoft will stop making new versions of its Zune player:
Zune, introduced in 2006, never managed to break the iPod’s grip on the music-player industry and became the brunt of late- night talk-show jokes. Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPod led the market with 77 percent of unit sales last year, while the Zune failed to crack the top five, according to NPD Group Inc. By adding the Zune features to the Windows Phone software, Microsoft aims to gain ground in another challenging area — mobile phones — where it’s lost market share to Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple.
It’ll be interesting if this turns out to be true. Shouldn’t Microsoft should keep the Zune player going if only to keep Apple from completely owning the “pre-phone” demographic? Apple, with its iPod touch, has an almost unchallenged monopoly on the does-everything-but-make-calls device market. Two words: platform lock-in. What happens when iPod touch owners decide to “graduate” to smartphones? Which phone would allow them to keep all their apps and easily migrate all their media? Hmm…