Although the Zune was largely a failure in terms of overall market share, it wasn't a bad product offering.
* The Zune Pass was an excellent way to get music for a flat monthly rate, and the selection and price was competitive with Rhapsody and other services.
* Zune hardware was always top-notch, with Zune devices having FM or HD radio. The Zune HD was particularly nice.
* Zune Social was somewhat similar to last.fm and provided useful music recommendations.
* Zune offered DRM-free music, in addition to DRM-locked music for the Zune Pass.
* The (Windows-only) client software was very well designed, and superior in usability to iTunes (IMO).
I would be disappointed to see the Zune name go, but sometimes good products fail in the market.
Especially the hardware. Nice build quality overall with solid plastic and metal, slick braid-covered earbuds instead of plasticy ones. The UI was pretty awesome too, minus a few usability annoyances.
In regards to the client software, I must say that iTunes is an absolutely atrocious piece of software (at least on Windows). I think the Zune app really got it right for managing large amounts of music in a simple-to-use interface. It really is too bad that it will most likely be getting the can soon enough.
* The Zune Pass was an excellent way to get music for a flat monthly rate, and the selection and price was competitive with Rhapsody and other services.
* Zune hardware was always top-notch, with Zune devices having FM or HD radio. The Zune HD was particularly nice.
* Zune Social was somewhat similar to last.fm and provided useful music recommendations.
* Zune offered DRM-free music, in addition to DRM-locked music for the Zune Pass.
* The (Windows-only) client software was very well designed, and superior in usability to iTunes (IMO).
I would be disappointed to see the Zune name go, but sometimes good products fail in the market.