Videogame retailer GameStop Corp. announced its decision to stop the sales of Microsoft’s Zune media player. This is a direct consequence of the poor market demand and the product will only be available on the GameStop’s Web site until the current supplies will be exhausted.

“We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated,” explained a GameStop spokesperson in an official statement, quoted by TheTechHerald.

As a response to GameStop’s announcement, Adam Sohn, Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager, said, according to the Wall Street Journal, that the Zune sales "have seen good momentum" during the past few months, and that there's been a "great response to our spring release."

GameStop’s popularity was a huge asset in Microsoft’s efforts to break into the market heavily dominated by Apple’s Inc. iPod media player and the loss of the videogame and console retailer with its 4,500 outlets will surely have an impact on Zune’s future sales.

On the other hand, several other retail stores including Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart will continue selling the Zune.

Microsoft’s player did not turn out to be a worrying opponent for the iPod, selling only about 2 million units since its release in October 2006. Just to get a picture of the interest shown in Apple’s product, during the same time period, close to 80 million iPods were sold worldwide.

At this point, Microsoft covers only 4% of the specific market, with the iPod’s market slice at an extremely distant 71 percent.