Zune Death Watch

A reader has just told us that "Windows Vista [is] among the finalists for Fiasco Awards." This is the Internet page which, according to our source, "was [also] featured in a local newspaper (in printed form, one of the most read in Catalonia)."

The title (in Catalan) reads: "Windows Vista and Second Life compete for the prize to biggest technological fiasco of the year."

Here is the website, which is open to voting.

Windows for laptops and desktops (Vista) is not the only version that's under siege. Microsoft's distribution of XP for sub-notebooks is costing it dearly, Windows CE is unattractive to developers and Windows Mobile is still lagging.

Microsoft-sympathetic writers have already advised Microsoft to drop Windows Mobile [1, 2, 3], which is performing badly. Well, it's happening again, even though it comes from a Microsoft-bent source (CNET), which adds intensity to the argument:

Is it time to ditch Windows Mobile?

[...]

The biggest problem for Windows Mobile has always been that it's bloated and runs too slowly.

The Register advocates axing the Zune as well. This sounds familiar and it comes from Mary Jo Foley's buddy.

In a season - the Christmas shopping period - when consumer gadgets are supposed to fly off retailers' shelves, Microsoft's Zune experienced a stunning $100 drop in revenue, a 54 per cent plunge. Even Microsoft was surprised.

The Register was not alone. A huge number of similar articles were published to express similar opinions. Among them (from this week only):

• Follow your muse, Microsoft--get out of hardware
• Microsoft hit by Zune sales crash
• Microsoft’s Zune: $100 Million Sales Drop Plus Layoffs Equals Questions
• Microsoft To Exit the Zune Business?
• Microsoft Zune Revenue Fall More Than 50% In 2Q
• When Will Microsoft Get a Clue?
• Yes, It's Time For Microsoft To Kill The Zune (MSFT)
• Zune Sales Tumble As Microsoft Tries To Compete With Apple iPod

Microsoft denies that we're seeing the end of the Zune brand, but then again, it also vigorously denied layoffs just a couple of months ago. It lied [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. It routinely lies without reluctance or shame. ⬆

Tom Davis took this photo of a Zune which was smashed in anger