Goodbye Zune

Microsoft's Zune is dead. It really has been a zombie undead platform for over a year now, as Microsoft shifted focus on their mobile phone platform.

So, the phrase "(fill in the blank with some technology or product) got zuned" never caught on. The reaction for some is that the device was nice, but was always too late to the party. It is, in a way, tragic of course, but ultimately it was a crippled product that didn't offer enough of a reason not to buy an iPod. Wifi on the device was crippled at a time that Apple didn't have a mobile media player with Wifi. The Windows software was a severely weak link; many didn't really like it, and there was no software for the Mac or other platforms.

The upside is that Microsoft learned a lot from the Zune (or so I hope) - the new mobile platform has a nicer UI, and there is the Xbox 360 - which is the greatest single argument that I can make that Microsoft really is capable of making great consumer products (yes, including their desktop OS and software applications). Pinning their hopes on a mobile phone OS is a good call indeed, and with Nokia as a strategic partner - I actually feel much more optimistic that this might actually be successful. Certainly, another competitor to Android and iOS would be welcome - generating new ideas for UI design, user experience, feature sets. Stay tuned (not zuned) indeed.