Zune hardware ceases production
Microsoft's portable media player officially canned, customer support to continue
Microsoft has ceased production of its Zune portable media players, according to a statement released on its official website.
"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," the statement read.
The Zune brand will now principally exist as branding for Microsoft's music and video distribution services, though existing Zune players will continue to receive full customer support.
Rumours of the cancellation of Zune's production surfaced in March, when an unnamed source told Bloomberg that 2009's Zune HD would the final iteration of the device. However, Microsoft was unwilling to directly address the issue.
The Zune was launched in 2006 as a rival to Apple's iPod range, but the subsequent launches of the iPhone, iPod Touch and the App Store brought any possibility of competition to an end.
At a press event yesterday, Apple brought Epic's Mike Capps and Chair's Donald Mustard on stage demonstrated the new iPhone 4S, which has a 7x increase in graphics performance over the iPhone 4.