Microsoft stops the development of the line of players Zune

Microsoft Corporation yesterday announced its decision to stop the development of the line of Zune players, which never became popular, despite all attempts to popularize the gadget. True, Microsoft leaves support for Zune services, planning and further developing this area for Xbox and communicators running Windows Phone 7. The first Zune player appeared 4.5 years ago; this was an attempt by Microsoft to counter Apple's own iPod gadget.

In addition, the company decided to discontinue the existing device models. Zune players will be supported only in North America. As mentioned above, the software platform and services related to Zune, remain afloat, and develop further. According to company representatives, the software giant's music service is quite popular, so the corporation sees meaning in further improving this area.
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Now the company offers to buy existing models of devices with discounts - $ 170 for a 16-gigabyte model and $ 200 for a 32-gigabyte model. This is about a third less than the cost of comparable models of iPods.

Some experts believe that in terms of technology, Microsoft’s players do not lose much to Apple’s counterparts, but the problem is not technology, but marketing - it’s too late to try to change anything by competing with Apple in the “music” field.

Via yahoo