It's been a bad month for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT ) Zune dreamers.
Was that a Zune that President-elect Barack Obama was working out with in a gym? Nope -- that story proved to be inaccurate, as Obama's campaign contacted the reporter to clarify that the next leader of the country jams exclusively with an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) iPod.
Is a Zune phone hitting the market early next year, to combat the popularity of Apple's iPhone and Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG ) Android offspring? Speculation there was snuffed out by industry blog Gizmodo last night. Zune product manager Brian Seitz is confirming that there won't be a Zune-backed wireless handset at next month's Consumer Electronics Show.
Sure, a smartphone with Zune compatibility would have been a dud. Earlier this year, Zune had just 4% of the digital media player market, badly trailing category-killer Apple and even distant second-place finisher SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK ) .
|
Q1 2008
|
Market Share
|
|
iPod
|
71%
|
|
SanDisk
|
11%
|
|
Zune
|
4%
|
|
Creative
|
2%
|
Source: NPD Group.
The real key to a Zune handset would be to cash in on Microsoft's Xbox 360 diehard gamers and make it a multipurpose communications, multimedia, and gaming portable device. Sony (NYSE: SNE ) and Nintendo (OTC BB: NTDOY.PK) have handheld players to match their consoles, so why not Microsoft? Anything short of that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Microsoft is too big and powerful to support a niche device with limited appeal for too long.
So, sure, maybe we don't get the Zune phone device next month. Maybe we never get a ZuneBox handheld gaming device. Absent either scenario, can anyone see Microsoft's two-year-old player making it to its third birthday?
2009 has to be a big year for the Zune, or it will likely be its last.
Other Zune-a-riffic leads:
RSS Headlines
Fool UK