Zune’s death greatly exaggerated

It’s not over till the fat lady sings eh? Well she hasn’t even made it out on stage..

New reports from Microsoft say the zune-hardware isn’t going anywhere despite some recent negative speculation. A Zune spokesman told Wired blogger Eliot Van Buskirk that “we’re not getting out of the hardware business at all,” and that Microsoft remains “deeply committed” to the Zune—and yes, that includes the boxy HDD- and flash-based hardware players.

Speculation about the Zune increased after this Financial Times story, in which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that we “should not anticipate” a Zune phone (no, really?) and that Redmond (as the FT paraphrases) “would stick to its strategy of developing software to support a range of mobile devices.” The Financial Times story then goes on, noting that Ballmer “seemed all but ready to throw in the towel on the Zune mobile device” during his CES keynote, and speculating that “if there is a future for Zune, it lies in planting the software and online service linked to the player in other devices.”

Adam Sohn a Zune spokesman insists that the Zune hardware is here to stay. “A lot of people … took Ballmer’s comments and ran in the wrong direction,” Sohn told Wired, adding that it’s not a question of “either/or,” for the Zune hardware and software, but rather “a ‘both/and’ situation.”  Could this mean a Zune Phone?