Why did Microsoft discontinue the Zune HD?

I too switched to the Ipod Touch and cancelled my Zune pass.  Only music you actually purchase from Zune can be transferred to Itunes. Music downloaded with the Zune pass is "protected" and will not transfer.

I too was disappointed to find out that the Zune has been discontinued. I currently have the HD32 and a Galaxy phone. I want to keep my phone and music separate as I play my music constantly. So buying a Windows phone is not an option plus they only have 16 gb of internal mem so i wold have to buy an additional card for in order for me to have all my music. So with the discontinuation of the Zune, it looks like I will try to trade my Zune HD, 2 docking stations and a A/V dock for a Ipod Touch

I agree with you. I would love to have separate device for playing music and video as well! To bundle everything in one device is nice, but sometimes too much is too much. My HTC (same with my past iPhone) can last only few seconds (ok maybe minutes) when used as a phone (with G3) and a player at the same time.  I like to listen for longer period of time to music or voice books and a simple thing like nanoPod is superior than heavy equipped and to cary around smart phone.

Then Microsoft, as you say, invented Tablet, first real smart phone with touch, amazing sound system (luckily I still have the speakers themselve!), and dropped everything dead to others. The question remains, are they going to half-develop windows phone as well? Kind of start and never finish? Synchronization of contacts sucks, copying files is impossible, organizing music on Zune is a chore and I can't even organize contacts by the last name! 

I didn't check it recently, but not long time ago, when I exported contacts from Windows Live or Outlook to "csv" or Excel file, all leading zeros in zip code numbers were eaten up. It is a horror if you live in Massachusetts and have a lot of addresses from there. THIS ERROR PERSISTS SINCE THE WINDOWS 3.0 or earlier. Where are the people who check fidelity of Windows?

There is no direct phone support for Windows Phone software other than through manufacturer!  I think, most of us would pay for support, as iPhone users do. It took one month before I got an answer from HTC to a very simple question about their software, not Windows itself.

I would like to stop here with hope that Nokia will take over and makes it really usable.....

i see. you are mistaking steve jobs for someone that worked at disney. imagineering is something disney employees do. and you are also mistaking microsoft for a hardware company instead of the software company they are. maybe making the zune was the real mistake in the first place but it doesn't matter now because they aren't making them anymore. you don't see apple making a console to compete with xbox do you? oh, and have you heard that apple will be discontinuing the ipod? it's just a rumor for now but will probably come to pass and apple will probably say they have decided to focus on ipads and iphones. and will you say then that apple is lacking in vision when they are following microsoft's lead?

and saying you're going to switch to the iphone because the price of the windows phone is ridiculous shows you haven't researched the prices for either.