Microsoft: Reports of Zune's death greatly exaggerated

Microsoft: Reports of Zune's death greatly exaggerated : Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech

"The still-struggling Zune—hardware and all—isn't going anywhere, Microsoft execs told Wired this week, despite some recent speculation to the contrary.

A Zune spokesman told Wired blogger (and my former colleague at CNET) Eliot Van Buskirk that 'we're not getting out of the hardware business at all,' and that Microsoft remains 'deeply committed' to the Zune—and yes, that includes the boxy HDD- and flash-based hardware players.

Speculation about the Zune spiked after this Financial Times story, in which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that we "should not anticipate" a Zune phone (no, really?) and that Redmond (as the FT paraphrases) "would stick to its strategy of developing software to support a range of mobile devices."

The Financial Times story then goes on, noting that Ballmer "seemed all but ready to throw in the towel on the Zune mobile device" during his CES keynote, and speculating that "if there is a future for Zune, it lies in planting the software and online service linked to the player in other devices."