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Microsoft To Exit the Zune Business?

Posted by timothy on from the leaving-only-the-other-makers-of-zunes dept.

thefickler writes "According to Microsoft's quarterly filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Zune platform experienced a revenue drop of 54 percent, or $100 million. This compares to relatively healthy sales of the iPod, which were up 3 percent in the same period (though revenue did drop by 16 percent). Obviously, with the recent job cuts at Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, pundits are wondering how soon until the Zune also gets the chop. As one pundit wrote: 'Microsoft, by now, should be realizing that it's never going to be as "cool" as Apple, so why waste its time with the Zune where it has no competitive advantage?'"

5 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. MSFT is still profitable by grolaw · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yet the Harvard grad is following the standard Wall Street pattern of layoffs to bolster stock price. If the Wall Street methods aren't discredited by the crash - apparently Balmer missed it.

    The Zune will never be a solid competitor - and innovation has been stifled by the idiots in charge.

    Worms and trojans and botnets are the legacy of that kludge Windoze.

  2. Had to remind myself what a Zune looked like. UGLY by upuv · · Score: 0, Troll

    I read this story. Then it occurred to me that I have never ever seen a "Zune" in the wild. I didn't even know what it's catchy logo was. I mean I had a complete blank on this brand.

    So I head over to the Zune.net site. I'm having a hard time believing that pathetic site is the suppose to be a hip trendy site. I'm also stunned at how UGLY that device is.

    I'm no graphic/industrial artist but I'm 100% positive I could come up with a better logo and device form factor than this.

    Did I mention that it's F-UGLY.

    MS what were you thinking when you green lighted this thing?

    Yah can it. Just admit it you stuffed this up and move on.

  3. Re:Committment? by spisska · · Score: 0, Troll

    This happened before with Windows CE and Palm. Palm had a solid lock on the handheld market, but MS kept dogging them, and Palm kept screwing up, till MS overtook them in the market.

    How's that been working out for MS? All I ever see are devices running RIM or Symbian. I don't think I've even seen an WinCe device in the wild for years.

  4. Re:Notice to Sourceforge: Kill off Slashdot! by Aphoxema · · Score: 0, Troll

    Aww, now I don't want to read /. anymore because of what some person said in a comment. I'm so sad, clearly I've wasted my life reading it in the first place.

    --
    "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
  5. Re:I admire Microsoft's tenacity by sunspot42 · · Score: 0, Troll

    If they think something is important, they'll stick with it and improve it with each release.

    Yeah, the way they "improved" Windows XP with Vista.