This is like something out of a science-fiction novel: Users of Microsoft's 30 GB Zune music players are reporting in large numbers that the devices crashed and stopped working, en masse, early this morning.

Users on the Zune.net forums began reporting problems with "frozen"  Zunes around midnight last night. Giving a sense for the magnitude of the problem, one forum thread has attracted more than 1,000 posts. So far, the problem appears to be affecting only the 30 GB Zune models, not those with flash memory or other hard drives.

Already the tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theories have begun.

"From what I can tell it looks like every Zune 30 on the planet has suddenly crashed," wrote one person on the Zune forums. "Is this a virus? A glitch? A time bomb? A disgruntled Microsoft employee? Planned obsolescence to make us buy a new one? Or just a terrorist plot to drive the free world crazy?"

People are also jockeying to come up with a catch phrase for the incident. We already had Barack Obama's ZuneGate, so what should we call this? My favorite so far: "Zuneageddon."

Joking aside, this is obviously a pain in the butt for many Zune users, and it no doubt has Microsoft's Zune team scrambling this morning. From a business perspective, it's not exactly the kind of thing that will help the company in its struggle against Apple's iPod.

I've asked Microsoft to explain what's happening, and how it might be resolved, and I'll update this post depending on the response.

More coverage: Ars Technica, CNet News.com, Electronista.

Update, 9:30 a.m.: Here's Microsoft's initial statement: "We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device.  We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it.  We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support)"

I'll keep updating this post as more details emerge.

Update, 2:30 p.m.: See follow-up post: Microsoft blames clock bug for Zune glitches, promises magic fix.

[Note: Photo has been updated since original post to show the correct model affected. Apologies for the mistake, and thanks to the readers who pointed it out.]