Zune vs iPod Sales?

[karlfranz]

Last week I was at my local Best Buy with a friend and we stopped at the MP3 player display to see the Zune for the first time. They had a black and a brown model on display. We were commenting on the ugly brown color when the salesguy told us they had actually sold one of the brown ones. We asked him what he thought about the Zune and his response was that it really wasn't too bad a player and showed some potential. He then said that, unfortunately, both the units on display were already broken so he couldn't shows us any features. We couldn't stop laughing as we walked away.

Two days later I was at another friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner. I told him about the Zunes at Best Buy and how I couldn't try them out because they were broken. He disappeared into another room and reappeared with a brown Zune he had bought a few days earlier. My reply to him was "So you were the one that bought the brown Zune"!

 

[vincebio]

In fact - that comparison is a little early. Make the same one in 5 years.

yeah.....

Peter O - 'remember 4 years ago when microsoft tried to bring an out ipod thingy called Zoine, or something like that' 🙄

Steve J - 'not really'

Peter O - 'in fact, what ever happened to microsoft anyway?'

Steve - 'Who Cares?'

 

[blindzero]

too soon to judge

guys i think you're being too hard on zune. play with one. it's not THAT bad. it's ugly, but the interface isn't bad at all. I don't plan on buying a zune (my ipod is fine and i'm waiting on a video pod), but it's good to have it in the marketplace for competition sake. maybe apple will actually pay attention to some of the features like the built in radio tuner which is a nobrainer...

 

[vitaflo]

Microsoft lost billions on the Xbox and likely to lose hundreds of millions on their Zune attempt. iPod sales have been profitable for Apple since their introduction. How one measures success in this industry can't always be marketshare.

Given that the Xbox's market share was only about 20%, you probably can't use market share as a measure either.

 

[Vulkan]

I work in an EB Games in Maryland. We received like 6 units and have only sold 3 of them. People seem to like the black one over the other colors. We have to tell people about this POS, or else... but most of the people that come in just ask about it in curiosity and they mostly are waiting what apple is goinig to draw out of the hat next.

If apple draws out whatever they are planning for the next ipod as evveryone thinks (sometime in january 2007), its going to kill the zune.

 

[Eraserhead]

I remember playing on an XBox soon after it came out, it had Halo and a Hard drive, which made it better hardware-wise than the PS2 and it had a really good exclusive game (though GTA which is on the PS2 is better). So I don't think the XBox was too bad really. I don't think comparisons can be made with the Zune this time.

 

[gugy]

Is anybody surprise by this?
Seriously we knew this all along.
Plus, what surprises me is that Microsoft did no TV advertising for the Zune at all. So many people out there have no idea it even exists.

Zune has no chance until they have an integration like ipod and itunes have. Maybe in Vista they will have a chance to get that but my feeling is too late for them.
Apple will not let down and I am pretty sure before spring we'll see updates across the ipod line and maybe finally the widescreen ipod.

 

[ottoworks]

23rd? Try 97th!

I've been watching Zune slip in the Amazon rankings for days. It's been a steady decline, and as of now it's 97th in Electronics. A few more hours, and, perhaps: bye bye!

Cheers,

Otto

 

[OdduWon]

Apple still has love for fm

Deep pockets or not, MS will have a struggle to find a niche. But at least they were smart enough to put in a radio.

Agreed, even though am/Fm is in decline, People STILL LOVE FM, there are some great indie college stations around. Which if i could listen to on my ipod i would. If every ipod had a tuner then people on campus could all listen, and experience the same thing. outside the station on campus they have speakers playing whats on air. People gather in the courtyard and socialize, at certain times probbably too. This could be a easy feature to add with big impact.

Also, 😀 , Perhaps the current iPod fm adapter will become the iStation/PodCaster? A light to signal on air, and others can tune in to hear your playlists or some type of browsing or podcast viewing emitted from the shuffle sized transmitter🙄

 

[Unspeaked]

I know that it's not quite fair to compare the two right out of the launch (a baby product versus a mature one), but MS didn't help themselves by setting up this product to compete directly with the iPod. If they had tried to target a different market (maybe primarily video as opposed to music), they might have more success, and let the hype build from there. But the way they seem to be playing it now, they're going to just throw a lot of money into something that will be in Apple's shadow. It'll offer a compelling alternative to some, but will not necessarily convince too many to become switchers. 😛

Wow. Substitute "Mac OS" for "Zune" and "Windows" for "iPod" and that could have been any random post on Mac Rumors from the last five years!

😉

 

[Doctor Q]

Money talks. A big ad campaign will produce much increased Zune sales.

And it's also true for Apple. Many people buy iPods because they have seen all of those TV ads and billboards, not because they did extensive comparison shopping.

Come to think of it, a good number of iPod purchasers are filling demands of their kids, who specifically plead for iPods. And kids are greatly influenced by advertising.

 

[Flowbee]

I don't think I've seen a single Zune ad on TV since its launch.

 

[war]

Don't forget the truth of Xbox

For all those people talking about XBox let's not forget one major thing about it. It took off because of Halo. What you may not know is that Halo was originally a mac game from a mac developer that MS bought in 2000. Read up on it to tell your MS fanboi friends here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios

Without Apple gaming there probably would be no XBox today.

Enjoy

 

[SplinterCell]

Microsoft lost billions on the Xbox and likely to lose hundreds of millions on their Zune attempt. iPod sales have been profitable for Apple since their introduction. How one measures success in this industry can't always be marketshare.

Do you have anything to support that MS lost billions on the xbox, I heard it was more like they broke even...

 

[Stridder44]

For all those people talking about XBox let's not forget one major thing about it. It took off because of Halo. What you may not know is that Halo was originally a mac game from a mac developer that MS bought in 2000. Read up on it to tell your MS fanboi friends here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios

Without Apple gaming there probably would be no XBox today.

Enjoy

Wow! That was new to me! The more you know I guess..

 

[twoodcc]

yeah i'm sure the Zune will evenually sell. but i don't think it'll sell like the ipod though

 

[XForge]

I thought Ihnatko's take on the Zune was particularly amusing:

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/147048,CST-FIN-Andy23.article

 

[Maimon Mons]

In case anyone missed it...

...here is a link to the CNN review of the zune. I wouldn't be surprised if they were payed by Apple given how it ends.

For what it's worth, the first zune on the amazon.com list shows up at #21 at the moment. Out of the top 10, 8 are ipods and the other 2 are sandisk models. Zune is beaten out by the 80 GB ipod in addition to the cheaper models.

 

[CEAbiscuit]

guys i think you're being too hard on zune. play with one. it's not THAT bad. it's ugly, but the interface isn't bad at all. I don't plan on buying a zune (my ipod is fine and i'm waiting on a video pod), but it's good to have it in the marketplace for competition sake. maybe apple will actually pay attention to some of the features like the built in radio tuner which is a nobrainer...

I played with it in a Target over the weekend. It IS THAT bad. I agree with the competition aspect, but the the things comes off clunky and akward...

 

[MattG]

Heh.

Suck it, Microsoft 😎

Do you have anything to support that MS lost billions on the xbox, I heard it was more like they broke even...

I watched a television show on the history of video games a couple of weeks ago. I forget what channel it was on...History or Discovery or something like that, but I specifically remember them saying that Microsoft lost a lot of money on the xbox, but that they didn't care...they just wanted to get their foot in the door.

I think it was this show:
http://games.ign.com/articles/744/744878p1.html

 

[Doctor Q]

...here is a link to the CNN review of the zune. I wouldn't be surprised if they were payed by Apple given how it ends.

Woah, that was one scathing review! Just one man's opinion, perhaps, but one that many will see.

 

[Mainyehc]

MS hasn't bet the farm on anything. It bought into the game with a moderately high ante and has many many chips in its stack. Just because they aren't usually smart doesn't mean they will always be stupid. It could come down to Gates' successor's vision which won't be known til he's sitting in the big chair.

Erm... So you're calling a slightly reheated Toshiba Gigabeat-POS with pseudo-WiFi (sure, it may be fully enabled in the future, but with a screen with that resolution, it'd be preety much useless) a "moderately high ante"?

I'm figuring they are getting more and more stupid, each and every day that passes. Read a bit of Daniel Eran's RoughlyDrafted Magazine, and you'll know what I mean by "stupid"...

And by the way, there's already a "Gates' sucessor", and I'm talking about the CEO title, not the Chairman... Come to think about it, Ballmer is already a "chair-man" of sorts... 😀 And we all know how smart that guy is. 🙄

 

[SplinterCell]

Heh.

Suck it, Microsoft 😎



I watched a television show on the history of video games a couple of weeks ago. I forget what channel it was on...History or Discovery or something like that, but I specifically remember them saying that Microsoft lost a lot of money on the xbox, but that they didn't care...they just wanted to get their foot in the door.

I think it was this show:
http://games.ign.com/articles/744/744878p1.html

Just last week I was watching Larry King interview Bill Gates & one the topics was the first gen xbox & Bill Gates said they broke even on the xbox but still considered it a success because they had a good position in the market.

 

[0010101]

I think it's way to early to make any judgments regarding Zune sales. Let's see what the numbers look like after Christmas.

5 years ago, Zune, in it's current form, might have been a hit.. but not in todays market. Especially considering folks who have lots of money tied up in MP3's aren't going to be real interested in throwing them away, and starting all over again.. or spend countless hours converting thousands of files.

I don't find it ugly, but I sure don't care for the brown color. What I noticed most about the Zune is that it feels and looks cheap in person. Like what i'd expect a mockup or prototype unit to look and feel like. From a distance, it looks fine.. you get close up, and.. well.. not so nice.

Almost like they rushed it to market in time for the '06 Holiday buying season.

Apple has the portable MP3 player market locked up.. with models in all but the lowest price ranges.. and the Zune sure is no immediate threat.

Comparisons of the Zune to the Xbox are not really fair.. they are two entirely different products.

Microsoft (as well as Sony and Nintendo) can sell the unit itself for at or below their actual cost, because where they make the real money isn't in selling the game console, but in selling the games and accessories.

With MP3 players, you have to make money on the product sale, because there is no guarantee the end user will buy all their music from your 'store'.

Zune specs are subject to change.. as are most retail products. Don't forget that when the iPod was first introduced, it only worked with Macs.. then they made a Windows version.. then finally they made an iPod that worked with either computer.

I expect a new version of the Zune by spring.. with new features, and less restriction.

 

[dashiel]

microsoft loses money on pretty much every product segment they have except office and windows. though xbox does look like it will be profitable soon enough.