There is a lot of stories out there reporting on how Microsoft is supposedly going to cease the development of any new Zune hardware, but will continue on with the Zune software itself, and the services as well. This is according to Bloomberg, and an anonymous source who wished not to be identified as this has not been officially announced.

This is an emailed statement received by Bloomberg had to say:

We have nothing to announce about another Zune device — but most recently have introduced Zune HD to Canada via the Zune Originals store and remain committed to supporting our devices in North America. We are thrilled by the consumer excitement for Zune across many new platforms, including Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360. Our long-term strategy focuses on the strength of the entire Zune ecosystem across Microsoft platforms.

If Microsoft did follow through with this, it definitely would not be surprising, as sales have been lackluster, even though the Zune HD received great reviews from multiple sources.

But is it really dead?

Everyone says it is, just from the initial statement of “we have nothing to announce about another Zune device” but what the heck does that mean? Are they saying they have nothing to announce ever, now, tomorrow, next week, next month, or what?

The statement also goes on to say that their long-term strategy is to focus on the strength of the Zune ecosystem across Microsoft platforms, and last I checked, the Zune hardware is a platform.

Just think about my questions, as the statement isn’t as cut and dry as some are making it out to be, but maybe I am just not wanting the Zune to die, especially seeing as I myself own a Zune HD.

I apologize for the long absence! I have been very busy with school this week, so didn’t have time, and of course, a lot of stuff happened this week!

As previously rumored, Windows Phone 7 was going to get Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, which would finally get the desktop and mobile versions of the Microsoft browser in sync. It is no longer a rumor, as Steve Ballmer announced that later this year Windows Phone 7 will get IE9 Mobile, with hardware acceleration, putting mobile Safari to shame (for now, that is). Not only that, but Windows Phone 7 will also get multitasking, much like how webOS currently implements their multitasking, with a card like interface. The update will be quite significant, not only including a major browser update along with multitasking, but Twitter will be integrated into the People Hub, and Office docs can be synced with SkyDrive.

In other Windows Phone news, Microsoft has said that the infamous copy & paste update for Windows Phone will be coming within “the first two weeks of March.” Microsoft updated their Windows Phone tools to include the copy & paste feature last month, and Microsoft defended that it was still a January update, because that is when the update was shipped to the manufacturers, but they are currently testing it now. Not only will this update include copy & paste, but a pretty big speed improvement in app loading times as well.

A new feature in Internet Explorer 9 includes the ability to pin websites to the taskbar on Windows 7, allowing these sites to take advantage of Jump Lists and other nice little integration features with Windows. Microsoft says that this feature has made a big impact on websites implementing these features, with websites seeing their site visits increase anywhere from 15 to 50%.

All over the Internet people were talking about how Microsoft is planning on killing the Zune branding, but Microsoft denied that they were killing the Zune. Paul Thurrott at Windows Phone Secrets says that Microsoft is indeed killing the Zune branding, but not the services themselves. Some say certain services could be integrated into Windows Live, I guess time will tell, won’t it?

I bet you might have heard about that tiny announcement that Nokia was pretty much dropping Meego and slowly phasing out Symbian in favor of Windows Phone 7, didn’t you? Many believed that Microsoft was paying them billions to do so, but Neowin points out that the claim is just not true. In fact, Stephen Elop said that this is a “very balanced relationship.”

Rovio has announced that they will be bringing Angry Birds to Windows Phone 7, I personally have never played it, so I don’t know just how exciting this news is. Good news that a very popular iOS game is coming to Windows Phone, however.

Microsoft is now offering an annual Zune Pass subscription, which runs at $150 a year. The month cost is $15, so that means with the annual Zune Pass, you get 2 months free, or $12.50 a month.

Remember that with the Zune Pass, you get to permanently keep 10 songs of your choosing, so the unlimited access to Zune’s 10 million track music library is really only costing you $30 a year. So a pretty good deal if you purchase 120 songs or so per year.

Microsoft’s response

Microsoft didn’t make any news release about this, and Ars Technica asked Microsoft, to which they said “”It went live yesterday in the US, UK, France, Italy and Spain. The monthly subscription is for $14.99 in the US and €9.99 or £8.99 in European markets. The annual Zune Pass subscription is the same monthly offer, at a discounted price of 12 months of music for the price of 10 months.”

Ars also points out, this change came the same day Windows Phone 7 was released.