We’ve been hearing lots of rumblings about the future of Zune services, and a couple of tweets from @MSNerd has brought some new, although totally unsubstantiated (read: wild rumor) bits of “information”. MSNerd tweeted a “wee little rumor” that Zune will be split into three groups: Xbox mobile, Xbox Live, and Windows Live Zune, and that this is supposed to happen on the 24th (the same timing as the highly anticipated Windows Phone Mango announcements):
32 minutes ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite
And to add even a little more speculation to the mix, MS_nerd also tweeted that the Zune backend platform will undergo a transformation as well, becoming a “Nokia services on Azure” offering, and including content from Netflix, Last.fm, and Hulu, among others:
30 minutes ago via webReplyRetweetFavoriteWhile we certainly are taking the “news” with a large helping of grains of salt, MS_nerd has been somewhat accurate in the past, the timing is right with the Mango announcements coming, and the “information” falls within the bounds of what we’ve been expecting to hear: a move toward more Xbox centric branding for what have been Zune services, the introduction of Nokia services into the mix, and at least somewhat of an answer for what to do with the existing (and future??) Zune devices issue, keeping at least a bit of the branding alive.
While we can’t vouch for the accuracy of the information, we sure are looking forward to hearing lots more soon!