Place this firmly in the “Not Quite Sure” basket, but leaked information that Microsoft’s Zune services, are to be broken up, redistributed across, Xbox mobile, Xbox Live and Windows Live Zune, seems a bit out there. In a lot of ways it doesn’t make sense, considering how core Zune is to the Windows Phone experience, with it’s desktop sync client, and music and video integration on the handhelds themselves. Is it though just another way for Microsoft to move services to the cloud, making us more dependent on Windows Live services, across all our devices. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft would incorporate a feature natively into WP7 and then, a little under 8 months after launch, restructure or even remove the branding at all.
WPCentral were tipped of to some Tweets today from a nefarious leaker, @ms_nerd , that seem to herald big changes for the service.
@BetoMcFly Zune Pass will slowly be merged with Xbox Live Gold, adding more 3rd-party content to the subscription (like ESPN).
And the Zune backend platform will become a “Nokia services on Azure” offering, with content from Netflix, Last.fm & Hulu among others.
Wee little rumor seeping out now: Zune next to be split into Xbox mobile, Xbox Live & Windows Live Zune on the 24th
The whole scenario implies MS streamlining, but what of the Zune brand? If Zune is to be phased out, what would that mean for the upcoming Mango update for Windows Phone? It’s presumptuous in many ways to think that MS would just disappear it’s mobile entertainment platform, on the strength of a couple of Thinking about it logically, this is more likely to be a step to bring all of MS’s entertainment services under one department. Let’s face it, pure Zune devices, the music players, meant to rival the iPod, never really had a huge impact on the personal media player market. Xbox though is a globally recognised entertainment brand, and as Windows Phone marches out to more markets, the possibility of better name recognition may be becoming a factor. Either way, this is just a rumour for now, and my musings on it account for nothing, Roll on the Microsoft event on the 24th 
In the end I would say this is just some tweaking, and not a major overhaul.
