Microsoft Corporation will be cutting off the original Zune when the Zune HD is released on September 15.  The Zune HD will cost $220 for the 16GB and $290 for the 32GB.  If you want one of the older Zunes, then it is highly recommended that you buy one now.

The advertising war between Microsoft and Apple is back on. Earlier today I wrote about the new Apple advertisement that parodies Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters. Recently Microsoft released an advertisement that focuses on the costs associated with buying music on iTunes versus the Zune Pass.

In the above ad, Microsoft uses famous financial planner Wes Moss to talk about the difference between filling an iPod versus filling the Zune. Interestingly Zune Marketplace is not mentioned in the commercial. The problem with the Zune Pass is that you can only keep 10 songs per month so if you wanted 30,000 songs, you’d have to wait 250 years as pointed out by Ars Technica.

[Ars Technica]

A job posting on the Microsoft website reveals the company’s plans for the Zune music player. The job is based in Redmond and the title is Software Development Engineer.

“The Zune team is looking for a qualified software development engineer to help deliver great digital entertainment features into the living room, including on demand music and video,” states the job posting. “Primary responsibilities include development of innovative user interfaces for delivering a rich, deep interactive media consumption experience in a living room environment. Experience with online services API development is a must, product will provide a rich online media experience delivering music and video from the cloud. A passion for UX and digital media is a must.” The software engineer has to have 3 years of C++ and C#.

I recall earlier that Steve Ballmer specifically mentioned that consumers should not anticipate a “Zune Phone.” Instead Microsoft will be focusing on developing software for a wide range of mobile devices. This job posting implies that Microsoft has more of an interest in designing software built around other consumer devices that complement the Zune. What Microsoft means by media consumption in a living room environment is anybody’s guess.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has plans to take the Zune media player and online store to television sets.  The Zune online store is called the Zune Marketplace sells millions of songs, podcasts, music videos, and TV shows for downloads.  The Zune market made about $85 million in revenue during the Christmas quarter.

The Zune has a way to go in terms of competing with the iPod.  iTunes pulled in about $3.5 billion during the Christmas quarter and almost 200 million iPods have been sold.  Only about two million Zunes have been sold as of May 2008.

Steve Ballmer stated that Microsoft is “bringing our Zune Service, not the Zune hardware but the Zune entertainment service, to all three screens, PC, phone, and TV.”

[via PCW]

It looks like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) hired Keri Hilson to promote the Zune. The problem with this commercial is that it seems pretty bland. If I hired an R&B artist to promote my music device, then I would have had her do more than just list a bunch of artists that she likes. Heck, the commercial would have been a lot better if they had people break-dancing to Timbaland’s song featuring Keri Hilson, The Way I Are.

Feedback for Microsoft: Make Zune ads more creative.

The Zune may soon be a device of the past as it continues to plummet in sales.  The almighty iPod and iPhone seems to keep consumers wanting more Apple and less Microsoft.  According to a report filed with the SEC, the revenue of the Zune for the 4th quarter was less than half of the previous year.  As a matter of fact the “Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million or 54% reflecting a decrease in device sales.”

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Microsoft’s response to the iPod has been the center of many, many jokes.  Earlier today, the Microsoft Zune 30 GB had a major outage.  People are calling the Zune blanking out today as “Zune2K9″ according to Gizmodo.  A report at Gizmodo states that:

Apparently, around 2:00 AM today, the Zune models either reset, or were already off. Upon when turning on, the thing loads up and… freezes with a full loading bar (as pictured above). I thought my brother was the only one with it, but then it happened to my Zune. Then I checked out the forums and it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them

All of the complaints on major Zune forums are consistent regarding the issue.  You can read about them on ZuneScene and Zune.net.  Gizmodo has also released a do-it-yourself fix to the problem.

Microsoft’s official response to the situation is:

We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device. We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

Stayed tuned to see what happens going forward.