After five years of mediocre sales, Microsoft (News - Alert) is finally abandoning its family of Zune music and video players, a source close to the situation told Bloomberg.

Launched in 2006, the Zune MP3 player was marketed as an iPod killer, but never achieved near the adoption level of Apple's (News - Alert) iconic music player and was soon forgotten by the majority of consumers.

Microsoft will now focus its efforts on its Zune software and services platform, which it hopes will be a hit among Windows Phone (News - Alert) 7 users, according to the unnamed source. Zune software is set up in a similar manner to iTunes, where consumers can purchase music and videos on an à la carte basis, or as a monthly subscription service.

The software giant declined to comment on whether it would stop development on its line of music players, but confirmed that it would continue to support the Zune ecosystem.

"We have nothing to announce about another Zune device -- but most recently have introduced Zune HD to Canada via the Zune Originals store and remain committed to supporting our devices in North America,” the company spokesperson told Bloomberg (News - Alert) in an e-mailed statement.

"We are thrilled by the consumer excitement for Zune across many new platforms, including Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360," the spokesperson added. "Our long-term strategy focuses on the strength of the entire Zune ecosystem across Microsoft platforms."

If Microsoft does end up discontinuing its line of portable music devices, it wouldn't come as all that much of a surprise. A rumor began to swirl last week that Microsoft is in the early stages of developing a new music service codenamed "Ventura" that will be focused on "music/video discovery and consumption," sources told ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley.

Many insiders speculated that the launch of a new music service would spell the end for the Zune platform, so we will have to wait on an official announcement from Microsoft to discover the true fate of the struggling software.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf