Is it finally game over for Microsoft's Zune hardware business? What we first came to know as the Argo media player built by Toshiba -- and available in turd brown -- has gone through several revisions over the years. The current Zune HD offers a sleek design, OLED screen, and up to 64GB of storage capacity.

However, it looks as though Microsoft just can't keep up with the likes of Apple with its iPod, or even SanDisk and Creative. Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft is on the verge of killing off future versions of its Zune portable media players (PMPs). While new Zune hardware will no longer be produced, the Zune software bits will continue to creep into Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 devices.

This isn’t the first time that trouble has followed Microsoft’s Zune, however. Back in 2008, GameStop stopped stocking Zune players in its stores due to a lack of sales. “We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated,” said a GameStop spokesman in May 2008. “It (also) did not fit with our product mix.” 

With Microsoft’s share of the smartphone market down just a few months after the launch of its innovative Windows Phone 7 operating system, the boys from Redmond need to be focusing their energies on this highly lucrative segment of the market instead of its failed efforts in the dedicated PMP market. 

Apple’s range of iPod players command 77 percent of the market according to NPD.