Why were zunes discontinued

The SuperSite Blog was first to break the news, reporting that all of the current Zunes are being discontinued. Naturally, suspicions were raised to sky-high levels. The store still looks as it did last month, but now we know that it's worse than just the Flash-based Zunes being discontinued; all Zunes will be gone once the stock runs out.

This is a very risky move on Microsoft's part. What if someone wants more than 32GB? Sure, there's a rumored 64GB version coming later, but some users want even more than that. What if they want a smaller device, both in size and capacity? Recall that the original Zune 30GB is considered first generation, that the Zune 4, Zune 8, and Zune 80 are considered second generation, and that the Zune 16 and Zune are considered third generation.

Redmond made it official Wednesday, quietly announcing the Zune is no more and leaving the few people still using the damn thing wondering where they go from here. To the iPod, of course. Or the Pono. Probably not the Pono. Wherever they go, the bigger question is how do those few Zune diehards pick up the pieces?

Although Microsoft will "retire" Zune services on Nov. You'll also be able to transfer music to and from your Zune. But you won't be able to stream or download songs from the Zune service. There were certainly warning signs that Zune might fail. Fans gave up on the product far too quickly.

Even Steve Smith, the man who infamously tattooed three Zune logos onto his skin including the Zune's slogan, Welcome to the social , decided to have his tattoos covered up in frustration of Microsoft's music player. I am done, wrote Smith in an online forum over at Zune Scene. I have had the Zune since day one and have noticed little improvement.

I have tried my best to support them in every step of the way but the recent Xbox Live announcement at E3 made me lose it. To not include Zune Marketplace or the ability to load videos from Xbox Live to your Zune made me finally give up. I am in the works of figuring the best way to get a new tattoo to cover the logo on my arm. Thanks for all the harsh comments and you will see very little of me anymore. But a major limitation of the Zune was that it was only compatible with Windows PCs.

Even Apple knew that it couldn't achieve its goals with such a limited audience, which is why the company eventually created the iTunes music player for Windows.