This week has seen a flurry of speculation online that Microsoft is considering dumping its Zune hardware range, which has conspicuously failed to bite into Apple's iPod market share.

The rumours mostly stemmed from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's CES keynote speech last week, in which he talked about how Zune is becoming as much about software running across various devices as it is about hardware.

However, Adam Sohn, head of the Zune marketing division at Microsoft, has moved to scotch the rumours. "We're not getting out of the hardware business at all," he tells Wired's Epicenter blog.

"We do think the Zune device is not the only place you will access the Zune experience. A lot of people jumped to an 'either/or,' when in fact it's a 'both/and' situation."

Sohn also asserted that Microsoft is "deeply committed" to Zune. However, most of the talk around the platform's future concerns music, rather than gaming - despite games having been launched for the Zune players relatively recently.

Whether this will encourage more developers and publishers to support the platform with their games is questionable, at best.