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Zune vs iPod Sales?
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sunwukong
macrumors regular
Call the exterminator
This thing has a serious bug infestation : 😱
Zune Scene Tech Support : http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=e68f9fffa988200ca99f9040d747224f&board=15.0
This thing has a serious bug infestation : 😱
Zune Scene Tech Support : http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=e68f9fffa988200ca99f9040d747224f&board=15.0
Hmmmm, I'd say only the ones they haven't ended up dominating 🙄
Like mobile phones, web servers, creativity software, games, game consoles, personal financial software, search, etc.
archurban
macrumors 6502a
after two weeks, zune price is little bit down already. now it's not $249 anymore. you can get it $200 with $40 gift card at circuit city. it's started to get cheaper, and finally will go to dumping. 😀
I don't care amazon selling rank because zune is already shown negative selling point.
I can't believe that MS still holds J. Allard as a big ruling leader. xbox is finally successful after 5 years (sort of). so until that time, MS lost tons of money. ironically it's not because of xbox itself but associated game developers who created cool battle games which had hit in the market. then it was triggered Live game which is not the first time by MS. Korean company already did.
Zune will be following the same way. but it will be more difficult than game. why? they must compete with Apple. unlikely other companies, Apple has totally different strategy, and very secured. the company leads industry standard all the time. little later, the rest of companies follow. when iTV will be sold next year, Xbox movie or TV shows service will get very big impact. I am sure.
I don't care amazon selling rank because zune is already shown negative selling point.
I can't believe that MS still holds J. Allard as a big ruling leader. xbox is finally successful after 5 years (sort of). so until that time, MS lost tons of money. ironically it's not because of xbox itself but associated game developers who created cool battle games which had hit in the market. then it was triggered Live game which is not the first time by MS. Korean company already did.
Zune will be following the same way. but it will be more difficult than game. why? they must compete with Apple. unlikely other companies, Apple has totally different strategy, and very secured. the company leads industry standard all the time. little later, the rest of companies follow. when iTV will be sold next year, Xbox movie or TV shows service will get very big impact. I am sure.
ezekielrage_99
macrumors 68040
I'll still waiting for the official "it has rootkit" article......
Can't wait to see that 😎
spicyapple
macrumors 68000
There is a 40 minute podcast on Inside Home Recording that has J.Allard singing the praises of the Zune to a group of music/podcast/executive types at the 2006 Music Tech Summit. Great listening, and he explains the features of Zune media player, plus reasons for whoring with Universal Music.
podcast < takes you to iTunes podcast page.
luv ya bunches! xoxoxo
Regular_John
macrumors 68040
you know, I'm trying to figure out why the Zune is so universally hated, and I can't.
I mean, yes it's Microsoft, but given the success of the xBox I would have thought some faith had been restored in them. I mean no one has even used the damn thing yet and their panning it as if it's the worse mp3 ever released. Yes, it's meant to go head to head with the iPod, and yes, it will probably fail, but why are we not giving credit where it's due?
The 3 days/3 plays thing is kinda bunk, but the wifi sharing in the first place is a pretty neat idea. How many of you use iTunes sharing at work or in the dorm? Wouldn't it be nice if your iPods could do the same?
And what's wrong with a larger screen that works in both landscape and portrait? I have a feeling that were the iPod to have gotten this functionality first everyone would be tripping over their credit cards to order one.
I dunno, just seems like everyone is getting overly excited on joining the "trash the zune" bandwagon that they aren't willing to give any credit where it's due.
I mean, yes it's Microsoft, but given the success of the xBox I would have thought some faith had been restored in them. I mean no one has even used the damn thing yet and their panning it as if it's the worse mp3 ever released. Yes, it's meant to go head to head with the iPod, and yes, it will probably fail, but why are we not giving credit where it's due?
The 3 days/3 plays thing is kinda bunk, but the wifi sharing in the first place is a pretty neat idea. How many of you use iTunes sharing at work or in the dorm? Wouldn't it be nice if your iPods could do the same?
And what's wrong with a larger screen that works in both landscape and portrait? I have a feeling that were the iPod to have gotten this functionality first everyone would be tripping over their credit cards to order one.
I dunno, just seems like everyone is getting overly excited on joining the "trash the zune" bandwagon that they aren't willing to give any credit where it's due.
I agree completely - yes the Zune has some issues and yes it's a bit too big right now and yes I love my Ipod - but I do think the competition is a good thing - the graphics on the Zune are really sweet! Come on, Apple is the graphics champ and looking at the menus for iPod compared to Zune it's easy to see Apple could and should be doing more.
Also the screen - great idea to have it rotate .
Like I said - still love the ipod, but would like to see some of these the enhancements roll over to the apple side.
gkarris
macrumors G3
Ease of use, dude...
I couldn't wait for Bungie's "Halo" (Bungie started out on Macs and made great games for them). But my fear was trying to update my PC and drivers again and again. Then, it was to come out for XBox! No more trying to get the hardware to work with the software, as it's designed for a game console. MS did great here with the XBox...
I looked at the Zune forum and the users are having problems putting vidoes into Zune. One user said this was the "easy" fix:
Posts: 27
Re: Video Folders?
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2006, 08:44:08 AM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FYI...
http://www.tigotago.com/
you can use this program to change the Secondary class name:
Movies = A9B87FC9-BD47-4BF0-AC4F-655B89F7D868
TV Shows = BA7F258A-62F7-47A9-B21F-4651C42A000E
Music Videos = E3E689E2-BA8C-4330-96DF-A0EEEFFA6876
complete list off attributes are at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/WM_Metadata_Usage.asp
I successfully added Bubba Ho-Tep as a "Movie"..what a pain in the ass..they better change this crap and make categorizing videos easier
Logged
-----------------------------------
So, all you need to do for your video to work is change the "Metatag" on it to one of the above codes!!!! Couldn't be easier (on an MS platform...)!
I couldn't wait for Bungie's "Halo" (Bungie started out on Macs and made great games for them). But my fear was trying to update my PC and drivers again and again. Then, it was to come out for XBox! No more trying to get the hardware to work with the software, as it's designed for a game console. MS did great here with the XBox...
I looked at the Zune forum and the users are having problems putting vidoes into Zune. One user said this was the "easy" fix:
Posts: 27
Re: Video Folders?
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2006, 08:44:08 AM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FYI...
http://www.tigotago.com/
you can use this program to change the Secondary class name:
Movies = A9B87FC9-BD47-4BF0-AC4F-655B89F7D868
TV Shows = BA7F258A-62F7-47A9-B21F-4651C42A000E
Music Videos = E3E689E2-BA8C-4330-96DF-A0EEEFFA6876
complete list off attributes are at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/WM_Metadata_Usage.asp
I successfully added Bubba Ho-Tep as a "Movie"..what a pain in the ass..they better change this crap and make categorizing videos easier
Logged
-----------------------------------
So, all you need to do for your video to work is change the "Metatag" on it to one of the above codes!!!! Couldn't be easier (on an MS platform...)!
They have been in the console biz for 1.2 generations, and their second generation console, a "moderate success", is looking like it will "win" this generation of console wars, I know I'm not alone in thinking that.
Their software sales are driven by getting in on the ground floor, windows for example, Office, and then trying to destroy all other comers (through various, often unscrupulous means), where as in the hardware market they play catch up, xbox, etc. I think we can all agree it's much easier to get in on the ground floor, than when everyone else is on floor 13.
I don't think MS is as worried about their mice as they are multimedia products, the xbox and the new zune brand are much more important than that, making the MS brand "nicer" more friendly etc. As more and more people want a computer in their living room, MS wants to be there to give it to them. Their mice are fairly well respected the last time I checked anyways.
Fanboyism, well when the debate is lost, the loser resorts to slander, I believe socrates said that. Anyways, I'm not a ms fanboy, but I realise that they have tons of money to burn, and that is not going to change any time soon. They own a good portion of apple if I'm not wrong.... They have no reason to not want apple to succeed, nor do I, competition breeds excellence, as I said, if apple is affraid of competition, then it's time for some.
How did you destroy the xbox crap? They entered the market, and now with a second generation product are looking like they will have the most market share of all of the next gen consoles, going against a 3rd and 6-7th generation products. It sold more ps3's or wii's on their opening weekend. I own a wii btw, and probably will own a ps3 in a bit. Xbox 360 has sold about 8 million, so far, I believe. It's pretty much agreed upon that they will own the N.A. console market, it's the other markets which are in contention.
As for hoping Sony stumbles... Uh, the reason that sony looks like they are stumbling is because the ps3's online capability is being compared to XBL, that their console is being compared to the xbox, the fact that the ps3 can't output 1080i, wtf is that, and hey that may not be firmware fixable, they retracted that statement, etc etc etc. Go read any review of the PS3, they will mention things that are in direct comparison to the xbox. MS got it right this time, sony didn't. The only thing that is saving sony is their playstation brand name. Again, I'll own a ps3, but not for a while. I was REALLY excited about the ps3, and was a huge ps2 fan, but sony is pissing me off, and many, many other gamers as well. 600 dollars, comon, we all know that is crap, they loaded it with blueray and want us to pay for the pleasure of them shoving their format down our throats, perhaps we would like to play games, not watch your movies sony.
Why did ms do that stuff, why are you asking me, I don't know. But maybe just maybe they don't care what apple is doing? Seems plausible to me, they got in on the console market by doing it completely different. Which I know, the 360 is a moderate success, sure, in japan sure.
ps3 has 250K units world wide so far, and most of those are on ebay. lol
stcanard
macrumors 65816
As far as what's wrong with the wifi as currently done, here:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/zune.ars/4
Actually that entire review is pretty good at covering why the current Zune is really not worth it, and why it has potential.
My personal opinion is that they will never hit that potential -- Microsoft in the post Gates incarnation has shown a complete inability to focus, and to "get" the current trends. Realistically all their big successes were pre-Ballmer, and even the XBOX owes more to Halo than it does to any brilliant positioning on the part of MS.
But as far as all out Microsoft bashing, what would one expect on a forum dedicated to Apple?
Belly-laughs
macrumors 6502a
Don´t know if it´s been posted earlier, but apparently Zune sales in it´s first week were pretty good
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/techgames/10324945.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/techgames/10324945.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Sometimes new things are the Hip thing to buy, but to get a Zune you need 2 things:
1-Bad Taste
2-Bad Taste
The review complains
If they allowed retransmissions, couldn't a pair of Zunes beam it back and forth to prevent ever reaching expiration? If they allowed retransmissions of purchased songs, how might they prevent this trick from being used to keep songs forever? Keeping a record of all previous songs, so it could recognize one it had before, and not permitting those records to be purged? Counting a retransmission as one of your three "plays"? Keeping the original expiration date, even if 2 of the 3 days had already gone by?
Another way to ask this question: If Apple decided to compete head-to-head with this feature, what should they do differently?
Ubuntu
macrumors 68020
My thoughts exactly.
I'm all for the iPod, I'm happy with my 8GB red nano, but come on people, give the Zune a chance. Many of you are being petty, and I think that this is a stupid comparison.
There is only one Zune model anyway, are they comparing it to the countless models of the iPod?
Is that fair?
Are iPod Shuffles included? Is that fair, considering the price?
I can't access the link for some reason.
ezekielrage_99
macrumors 68040
I respect the line about giving Zune a chance and then comparing it's success to Zune however I really don't think Zune has what it takes to come close to the iPod. The reality is the Zune looks like a 3 year old music player and it's only real selling points are the bigger screen, radio and wireless which aren't that big of a deal in the first place.
Zune is also getting in an already established and saturated digital music market with an inferior product and system for users, will it succeed? Only time will tell but there will be buyers for the Zune.
Should the Zune should get a fair comparison but the reality of business is there's nothing fair about it, Microsoft has prooven the unfair factor with Netscape, anti-Trust and Sony Rootkit time and time again.
If Zune was release 3 years ago then I would say it would outsell the iPod but the fact remains with nothing that outshines the iPod, subscription and limited file formats and playback it wont compete with the iPod or other players like the Samsung or Sandisk.
Zune is too little too late for Microsoft and really doesn't have the "wow" factor that ever I would expect for a company like Microsoft. I really do think the hot selling iPod this Xmas (or international present giving day as I like to call it) is the new Shuffle it seems everyone wants it, I have seen it sold out at quite a few stores already.
hulugu
macrumors 68000
I think the feeling was, this is the last full measure for anyone expecting to knock the iPod off its pedestal without a serious sea-change in technology, to mix my metaphors a little.
Sony tried, Dell tried, Creative is trying, and really only Samsung and SanDisk are having any success. The real threat it appeared was from Microsoft who could use their money and leverage the support of WMA, the XBox, and other technologies to support the Zune.
Instead, Microsoft made a clunky box, reinvented the software wheel, and severed the Zune from all the PlaysForSure companies. The only real leverage the Zune has is it's connection with the XBox, which the iPod can do as well. The Zune is a massive duplication of effort, and will surely do more to eliminate the smaller players in the market, such as SanDisk, than affect the iPod's sales.
Furthermore, I would ask anyone to avoid buying the Zune, no one should reward Microsoft for releasing a product that is effectively unfinished. Really for $250.00 you get to do their beta testing, and that's not a privilege anyone should have to endure.
You are not only wrong but TOO wrong.
This is an urban myth.
I will come back here in January when i will be home in my other computer where i have the explanation for this and then i will answer again and get you out of your error.
well , maybe i will write my sister to see if she can email that to me, but again, you are way wrong
hulugu
macrumors 68000
First, the Zune reviews have been nearly universally bad, so I think the Zune got a chance and failed.
Secondly, the Zune is number six on Amazon's Bestseller list when compared to hard-drive based players, following three models of the iPod and the Creative Zen Vision. However, the Zune is 17 when compared to all Mp3-players. What does this tell us? Is the Zune a good product, or has the Mp3-player market abandoned the hard-drive based market for flash?
Should other iPods been included, yes and here's why, the Zune has to compete with all the iPods, because it uses a different DRM-scheme and thus is in competition with the entire iPod market. That's the Zune's real problem, it's competing with the whole ecosystem now.
Yeah, out of all 3 major options. [Sony, Nintendo, and miCrapsoft] 🙄
Real hard. 😛
I bet even I could have whipped up a console one night a few years back and kicked them out of the top 3. 😉
I remember reading sales figures in '04 between PS3 and XSUX. It was something like 74+ million PS3's to 13.x million XSUX's.😀
As has been mentioned several times throughout this thread, there are WAY more manufacturers AND models to contend with in the digital audio player market.
SactoGuy18
macrumors 603
Folks,
The reason why the Zune sells poorly comes down to these factors:
1) The software to interface with the Zune leaves much to be desired in terms of ease of use. Every reviewer expresses concern about the unneccessary complications of the Zune software copying media files to the player.
2) Microsoft blew it by going to a new digital rights management system, one totally different than the DRM system used in conjunction with Windows Media Player 10/11 with its Play for Sure initiative.
Technically, while the Zune is larger than it needs to be, most reviewers do laud the interface on the player itself. I think once Microsoft improves the interface software for the Zune acceptance of the device will climb dramatically. After all, when Apple started selling iPods for Windows users it didn't become really popular until the iPod switched to the USB 2.0 connection and iTunes became available in a Windows version.
The reason why the Zune sells poorly comes down to these factors:
1) The software to interface with the Zune leaves much to be desired in terms of ease of use. Every reviewer expresses concern about the unneccessary complications of the Zune software copying media files to the player.
2) Microsoft blew it by going to a new digital rights management system, one totally different than the DRM system used in conjunction with Windows Media Player 10/11 with its Play for Sure initiative.
Technically, while the Zune is larger than it needs to be, most reviewers do laud the interface on the player itself. I think once Microsoft improves the interface software for the Zune acceptance of the device will climb dramatically. After all, when Apple started selling iPods for Windows users it didn't become really popular until the iPod switched to the USB 2.0 connection and iTunes became available in a Windows version.