Reports have it that Microsoft is killing off its would-be iPod killer, the Zune digital music and video player. Microsoft declined to confirm the reports, though plenty are speculating that the company will keep the Zune brand and continue to produce media player software for Windows Phone 7 and the Xbox 360. If true, that would relegate the much hyped device to the dustbin of failed tech products.
And that got us thinking about other consumer products eliminated by Microsoft over the years. The software giant is hardly alone in tech flops. Apple's success with the iPad and now iPad 2 makes it easy to forget the Newton. And Sony's Betamax flop is the stuff of business school case studies.
Microsoft continues to make boatloads of money selling operating systems for computers bought by consumers. And gamers keep buying Xbox 360s and the games that get played on them. But there's a rogue's gallery of products introduced with great fanfare that have slid into oblivion. Here are a few of them.
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