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  #1  
Old 10-04-2011, 08:20 AM
Jason Dunn
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Default The Passing of Zune Made Official

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/03/...long-live-zune/

"We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players. So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing. Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our very last devices."

The above statement is from the Zune support page, and the above image from Engadget tells the story. Microsoft will not be making any more Zune hardware. The Zune HD was, and is, a truly great audio player. When I travel I take mine with me because I enjoy having a dedicated audio device. I especially enjoy not caring if I run down the battery on it during a long flight - and I can't say that for my phone. I can't go out and buy a Windows Phone 7 device with 64 GB of storage either, so there's not a true replacement product on the market today. It's not like we didn't see this coming a long way out, but it's still unfortunate to see.

While there are adequate portable media players from the likes of Creative, Archos, etc. none of them have the simplicity of being able to sync with the Zune desktop software. Going back to the days of dragging and dropping folders and manually managing a music collection is a big step backwards in my opinion...the Zune software does a great job at making it easy.

Zune hardware, you could have been a contender. You'll be missed.

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  #2  
Old 10-04-2011, 02:04 PM
jaxim
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I'd gladly buy a WP7 device to replace my ZuneHD, but unfortunately none of the phones out there or the unreleased ones I've been hearing about come close to the many of the hardware specs of the ZuneHD.

Why can't they make a WP7 that has:
  • at least 32 GB
  • dual processor to ensure some future proofing
  • big high resolution screen

Once I see a phone like that, then I'll consider buying a WP7.

Also, Microsoft is missing out on the teen and tween market. My pre-teen niece eventually bought herself an iPodTouch even though she was a Zune user for many years, b/c she wanted to be able to launch apps. She has a phone but she is not old enough to have a phone WITH an expensive data plan. So the iPod Touch fit her needs.

The number of apps available for the ZuneHD is pitiful. In order for Microsoft to keep my niece as a customer, there needed to be a Zune that could tap into the apps that are available to WP7 devices.

Hey, Danny! Aren't you going to be working for HTC now. Maybe you can convince them to create a WP7 device that is worthy for us Zune users AND a non-phone PMP device to tap into the teen/tween market.
 
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  #3  
Old 10-04-2011, 03:59 PM
hgoldner
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Default Not so much "launched" as put out to sea

I love my Zune HD, and I had one of the original Zune's (although I acquired it in a Woot Random Cr*p Bag). Until I got my tablet, it was my preferred media player and it's still my only resource for Digital FM.

But the Zune was launched after ipod with nothing to really distinguish it, and the Zune HD was practically an afterthough, with virtually no apps available. The Windows phone may be brilliant, but Microsoft just doesn't know how to market these things to take any kind of market share away from iOS and Android devices. Thing is, they actually *make* more money on Android devices (because of bizarre royalty payments by HTC and others) than they do on their own phones!

As with Palm, it's a great platform marketed into oblivion.
 
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Old 10-04-2011, 07:20 PM
Lee Yuan Sheng
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But I *like* manually managing my music library.

What I'd like is more storage. One reason I got the Optimus 7 is because it had 16GB of storage. It's not 32, but I can live with it... for now.
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  #5  
Old 10-05-2011, 07:50 PM
Sven Johannsen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxim View Post
Hey, Danny! Aren't you going to be working for HTC now. Maybe you can convince them to create a WP7 device that is worthy for us Zune users AND a non-phone PMP device to tap into the teen/tween market.
If someone does that it will be interesting to see how they resolve the fixed resolution on the WP, and therefore WP apps, and a higher resolution, bigger screen ZuneHD replacement. The upcoming HTC Titan will havea really nice screen size, physically, but the resolution is not what a Zune at that size should be.

MS would almost have to allow variation in resolution and then here we go, 640x480, 600x900, 320x320, 800 by 12something. Theoretically the current 480�800 is going to be joined by 320�480 but you really want to go the other way. Lord save the programmers. Worse yet you'll buy a 960x1600 device and there will be a little 2X to press in the corner. (early iPad adopters will get that, and maybe some old PPC users)
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