Microsoft Corp. has recently confirmed officially the death of its Zune digital media players. As reported earlier this year, the company will try to promote its music and video content delivery platform using Xbox Live and Windows Phone platforms. This time the company confirmed that its Zune players will cease to be sold.

"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," a statement by Microsoft reads.

Microsoft will concentrate on putting Zune software onto mobile phones, such as those running its Windows Phone operating system, as well as Xbox 360 game console. Earlier this year the tech giant confirmed that it would cease to develop new Zune models, therefore, the recent announcement comes with no surprise.

The market of standalone personal digital music players has been shrinking for several years now. A lot of people prefer multimedia smartphones, such as Apple iPhone, or even media tablets, such as iPad. Even Apple, the PDMP market leader, has been reporting declines is sales of its popular iPod players for many quarters now.

"So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing. Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our very last devices. Customer service has been, and will remain a top priority for us," the statement by Microsoft claims.

Originally introduced as a rival for Apple iPod in mid-2000s, Microsoft Zune has consistently failed to be as successful as its major competitor. After Apple launched its popular iPhone in 2007, it became clear that Zune players cannot compete against the smartphone. Interestingly, but some sources with knowledge of the industry's background said that internally Microsoft developed a Zune smartphone at least a year prior to iPhone's launch.

Tags: Microsoft, Zune, Windows Phone, Xbox Live, Xbox