Today's rumors...

[Stormp00per33]

Originally Posted by daglesj

But in all honesty, he hasnt really said anything has he.

Other than 'Watch this space' which we've all been watching with fading interest since the HD was launched all that time ago.

Most accurate post in this thread yet!

[CrowdAds]

[Flyordie]

Why is www.msn.com saying this.. and no, that is not a shop. Its real, just took it 2 minutes ago.

edit- Dave, is there some communication lag in the company? :-p Microsoft needs to call NBC and be like.. "GET THAT OFF THAR!"

[epithetless]

That is pretty funny...

[epithetless]

Originally Posted by Joe_Linux

Is the Zune HD a drag and drop system player that is fully compatible with Linux?

Are you trolling? Zune...drag and drop...Linux?

...or was that just a nicely placed joke?

[RagingDaemon]

What a disgrace!
another decade and this company doesn't know how to communicate with its customers.

[Nickel II]

Here is my take - maybe partially wishful thinking:

First I just bought a 64gb Zune HD back in September and absolutely love it. I had a Creative Zen for about 2-3 years prior with 32gb. The capacity just wasn't enough. If Zen had stuck with it I would have bought another Zen. Glad they didn't stick with it cause the Zune rules.

OK, from what I have read in reviews about MS and Zune is that MS is a software company, not a hardware company. This was new to them - designing the hardware and the software. MS doesn't market hardware - they market software.

What is crap about a lot of the other players in the market? Their software SUX. Creative had a nice interface on the Zen. That was about it. No PC side software to speak of other than the creative updater. Big whoop.

Maybe MS is in negotiations with a PMP manufacturer that will license the use of Zune's player and PC side software, or heck, maybe they are in negotiations with multiple PMP manufacturers.

MS gets out of the hardware business and sticks with what it is good at. PMP manufacturers finally get some decent software and a marketplace that allows them to better compete with Apple.

MS and all the others join forces and take on Apple as a group????

Of course MS and Dave wouldn't talk about this.

How rad would it be to have a choice of buying X number of players with different features, and it will behave like a Zune...except it isn't as locked down as it is now. If you want to use WMP or Media Monkey or whatever to manage your music, go ahead. If you want to use Zune, go ahead.

Put another way, maybe all of Apple's competitors are wising up and realizing 3% of the pie sucks and their only option is to join up.

Just saying....

[captainzune2]

So what was the major announcement? I haven't seen anything definitive from MS. I do notice that bing added som new buttons.l...

[epithetless]

PC World has an interesting article about the uncontrolled media attention swelling around the (mere rumor of the) demise of Zune hardware. The gist?:

Originally Posted by PC Mag

"Microsoft may soon come forward and say something...but the time is quickly passing where people will believe them. As long as stories float around the Internet without Microsoft's point of view, the Zune hardware line will be viewed as a spectacular failure."

...and...

"It's up to Microsoft to stand up and explain its decision and strategy. In the absence of clear information from Microsoft, everyone else can and will shape the message."

Yep. I agree that this is the bigger issue here, one which seems to plague Microsoft over and over again. Sure, "anything but an official announcement is unsubstantiated conjecture." That's fine. So where, then, are the official announcements addressing these kinds of rumors head-on? You know, the ones made with clarity, speed, and forthrightness, directly addressing consumer concerns and eschewing hazy marketspeak and ad copy regurgitation?

Dave matter-of-factly states that "NO information about our future plans, no matter what the incarnation, has been shared." -- How does Microsoft not see that as a problem? When has gingerly sidestepping a groundswell of unsubstantiated conjecture ever succeeded in squashing it? Honestly, Microsoft's PR management sucks.

[daglesj]

Makes you wonder if an official 'Zune Team' has actually existed much past the release of the HD.

Skeleton crew just handling some of the support and a piecemeal development team.

[Joe_Linux]

Originally Posted by epithetless

Are you trolling? Zune...drag and drop...Linux?

...or was that just a nicely placed joke?

No, it was a sincere question, although I suspected it would not be compatible with a first class operating system. Most likely that is one big reason for the Zune's demise.

[McDougal]

Originally Posted by Joe_Linux

No, it was a sincere question, although I suspected it would not be compatible with a first class operating system. Most likely that is one big reason for the Zune's demise.

This is correct.....but there are many other reasons too. I was a previous ZHD owner, I really enjoyed the device when I got it back in September....then, after learning more from folks here and learning to hate the software, I moved on to something better. How could they possibly expect the device to succeed when its more locked down than the iPod, hardly any advertising, and only sold in the US until just recently?

Right now....there's only one person in my school who has a ZuneHD, I keep telling him to ditch it but he never does lol....

The ZuneHD was setup to fail.....that's pretty much a fact now IMO.....

[dfkt]

That whole wishy-washy statement in the first post does neither prove nor disapprove anything. Great spin-doctoring, DaveMac, thousands of empty words that don't say anything at all. It's really rather pathetic, considering one of the biggest corporations on this planet is behind this.

[McDougal]

I guess you're right, but IMO, it was still setup to fail from the beginning.....just my opinion.

[Lagoo56]

I also agree that it was setup for failure.If the Zune HD was given the same amount of attention from Microsoft that they give to the Xbox then it would of been much more successful.Millions of dollars are paid for the Xbox ads on television,now imagine how much better it would of been if the HD had that many ads and was exposed to consumers from the beginning.

[daglesj]

As I've said all along it was never a serious product for MS, it was a market tester.

The fact they never designed the first zune 100% themselves and bought a unit in speaks volumes.

In the past 18 months AMD/INTEL/Nvidia/Apple/Sansa/Cowon/Archos etc. have all brought out multiple generations of kit worldwide but the Zune? Nope not a thing.

All we've had for the past 18 months is "I cant tell you anything right now but we are all really busy!"

May as well have said nothing and we would have been just the wiser.

Oh sure we've had the Windows phone (nice phones but late to the party once again) but I reckon most of the Zune team were broken up many months ago and just reassinged. "We've got your UI ideas, so we dont need you anymore!"

[glove4]

Anybody read this: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382027,00.asp

[Uberman5000]

"Everyone, sell your really useful and well-designed gadget because they might or might not be making new versions of it, because it's so unusual for a major corporation with massive PR issues to be wishy-washy about its future plans!"

Right, anyone wanna run by me how this makes any sense?

[glove4]

This here is a gem, had me laughing hard.

"The final, or perhaps initial, nail in the coffin was the name itself: Zune. What was that? Was it a combination of the words zoom and tune, zero and tune, zap and tune? Generally, odd names like this are supposed to create subconscious implications in the brain. But Zune enters the brain with a resounding thud and confusion. The brain says, "What does it mean? What's the point? Sounds dumb."

[Uberman5000]

Originally Posted by glove4

This here is a gem, had me laughing hard.

"The final, or perhaps initial, nail in the coffin was the name itself: Zune. What was that? Was it a combination of the words zoom and tune, zero and tune, zap and tune? Generally, odd names like this are supposed to create subconscious implications in the brain. But Zune enters the brain with a resounding thud and confusion. The brain says, "What does it mean? What's the point? Sounds dumb."

You Tube

You Tube

Crack-a-lackin'!

[kingzfan2000]

Dont know if Mr. DaveMac is watching this thread but if you ever wanted the Zune to actually sell then a little marketing might have helped. Dont think I ever saw a single advertisement for the Zune HD and besides advertisement you could have offered some packages like a Zune HD/360 package where the Zune came packed along with an Xbox 360 or a package where a Desktop PC or laptop would come packaged with a Zune HD. A lot of stuff you could have done to cut into Apples market share. I think you guys need to hire some new marketing people.