Finally.  We don’t even want to go through the whole story again, it’s too embarrassing, but after a number of miscues, the Zune player has been (we hope) finally put to rest.  The notice on the Zune.net players support page, announcing that “we will no longer be producing Zune players”, after pulling a disappearing act last week, is back.

Of course, we haven’t heard from @ZuneSupport as of yet, as the Twitter account seems to have final say on what counts as a Zune announcement, but for now, we can move on.  Now we’re just left to wonder what the future will hold for Zune Marketplace, Zune Pass, the Zune software, and the newly merged Xbox Live and Zune marketing efforts.

What do you think, should Microsoft keep the Zune brand?  Should it just become Xbox Live Music, or some entirely new brand?  With this week’s antics as a topper to a long series of miscues, Microsoft seems to be intent on doing as much damage as possible to a Zune brand that never had much going for it to begin with, and although we have always liked Zune, nothing would surprise us after this week’s debacle.

via @tromboneforhire