http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20043070-75.html?tag=cnetRiver
How can you kill something that fell dead in the market place, already?
*
They burried it.
The Astro-designed (?) Zune HD is a nice piece. Maybe they will be for sale at deep discounts now. I blame the ‘squircle’ for the product’s demise 
After having 2 iPods (HDD) die on me I decided to make move to a flash based player and picked up the Zune HD when it came out. Its amazing. Vastly superior to the iPod touch if you don’t factor in the app issue . Since I wanted a dedicated device for music ( I listen to a lot of audio during the day and was sick of my phone battery dying b/c of it) the Zune hit a real sweet spot for me. I even prefer the desktop software.
too bad.
So will dedicated PMP exist in the future or will they be completely overrun by smartphones?
Apple set the tone. One device that does all.
Standalone portable music player is probably gone forever.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I don’t like that.
I’ll second that sentiment. I use an old Sony Minidisc player sometimes, just to be anachronistic. I even liked discrete hardware media (i.e. tapes and cassettes) that have their own housings and complicated loading mechanisms. I don’t know of a REALLY GOOD portable music player that does nothing but play high-fidelity music.
You’ll always need a music player when going to the gym, a smart phone sometimes is just too bulky, some places won’t even allow you to bring a camera-phone.
Hilarious!
meh, its 3 mins of him saying this is better than that after saying he’s never used (seen) that. You’d think his writers were better.
until the iPhone has 100+gb at a reasonable price, I’ll stick with my MP3 player that does what I need best, not something that does everything satisfactory. I don’t think MP3 players in general will go out anytime soon.
I’ve tried finding a good non-Apple replacement MP3 player when my current iPod breaks (on my 3rd one) but always go back to the iPod though. IYes it will be very hard to compete against it, but MP3s being obsolete soon, I highly doubt it.
I’ve been using a Zune HD for months now and I love it. Sad to see it go away but hopefully that drives the 64gb version price down as my current 16gb doesnt seem like enough anymore. The software and zune pass will stay as that is on those windows phones now.
I prefer using it over my phone since I play music at work (8+ hours) and I also use it while I jog.
If a Zune falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Having a large capacity iPod and an iPhone, I can say I only use the iPhone now, and synch different mixes. At work I listen to music off my laptop, not off my player, so it eliminates the need for tons of music except for Asia flights.
I think convergent devices are where it at. My caveat being the only stand alone survivors will serve an obvious need/niche like Hi-Fi, or ultra large storage.
Ha. Agree the Astro Zune was a very nice piece of kit.
I agree. The amount of techno-junk I carry when I travel is a joke. It has gone from a cell phone a decade ago, to laptop, cables, camera, charger, cables, smartphone, charger, cable, mouse, external hard drive, sd cards, usb flash drive.
I now want an ebook reader as so many of my magazine subscriptions are digital, now, but I’ve held off coz I’m not sure I can cope with schlepping even more techno junk. Ipad is out of the question (way too big - my poor back!), kindle isn’t in colour. sigh
The thing with integrated devices, though is they are often only ‘ok’ at their tasks. My cellphone camera isn’t good enough for work tasks. An ipad is next to useless if I have to edit an illustrator document, so I end up dragging all this junk around with me.
Shoenista: Amazon has a free Kindle for PC program. Maybe you could read the magazines on your PC with that.
I’ve got Kindle for pc - I do want an ebook reader but the thought of another gadget makes my heart sink. Living on a traditional English Narrowboat feels like dwelling in a filing cabinet at the best of times. 
I will cave eventually I guess.