“Microsoft’s attack on the Apple iPod began with a whimper Tuesday as Zune players made a lackluster debut in US stores,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
AFP reports, “Two boxed Zune players sat ignored on the top shelf of a Plexiglas showcase packed with iPod accessories in a Virgin Megastore near Union Square in San Francisco’s popular shopping district. ‘I didn’t even know they were there until a customer pointed them out,’ said sales clerk Jake Brooks. ‘I’m sure we have more in a closet in the back somewhere.'”
“By mid-afternoon the store had sold one Zune player and one other person had inquired about them,” AFP reports. “The scene was bleaker at a CompUSA store a block away, where the manager said that an oversight by Microsoft sales people had resulted in the store not getting Zunes for display. No apparent harm was done though, said the manager, because no shoppers came asking about Zunes.”
“Apple has sold nearly 70 million iPods since introducing them in 2001 and the devices command about 75 percent of the global MP3 player market,” AFP reports. “Apple’s online iTunes store sells digital music, podcasts, video, and films [with music library of over 3.5 million songs]. Microsoft’s online Zune Marketplace sells only music for the devices [with a library of about 2 million songs].”
Full article here.
Reuters reports, “Donna Murphy is no fan of the ubiquitous iPod music player so on Tuesday she became one of the first to buy Microsoft’s new rival Zune device. ‘I just needed a new MP3 player to play my music and watch videos,’ said Murphy, who bought a Zune at Best Buy’s midtown Manhattan store. ‘I’m not an Apple fan, not an iPod fan. So I wanted to try something different.'”
“But initial shopper interest suggested the Zune media player—heavily promoted in gadget reviews and television talk shows—was in for a slow building process,” Reuters reports. “An employee at the Best Buy store said two shoppers entered the place as it opened and purchased Zune players, and that about 20 were sold within the first three hours.”
“At the Virgin Megastore in New York’s Times Square two circular displays sporting Zune players with earphones attached were unmanned that morning, save for store employees restocking supplies,” Reuters reports.
Full article here.
Related articles:
Microsoft’s Zune incompatible with Windows Vista – November 14, 2006
Dvorak: ‘If anything is doomed to failure, it’s Microsoft’s Zune’ – November 14, 2006
Ballmer: Zune’s Wi-Fi will help Microsoft challenge Apple’s iPod+iTunes – November 14, 2006
CNN ridicules Microsoft’s Zune while gushing over Apple’s new iPod shuffle – November 14, 2006
Engadget: Microsoft’s Zune software: ‘It sucks’ – November 13, 2006
Early Microsoft Zune customer greeted with Zune ‘Installation Error’ – November 13, 2006
Zuned: What’s the ‘deal’ with Microsoft Points? – November 12, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Apple has no need to worry about Microsoft’s cumbersome, chunkier Zune – November 11, 2006
BusinessWeek: ‘By this time next year, Microsoft’s Zune will be considered a dismal failure’ – November 10, 2006
USA Today’s Baig: Microsoft Zune is no Apple iPod – November 09, 2006
Forbes: Microsoft’s Zune stinks; like ‘Microsoft Bob,’ only more embarrassing – November 09, 2006
NY Times’ Pogue: Zune should come in green to match Microsoft’s iPod envy – November 09, 2006
Mossberg: MS Zune has ‘too many compromises, missing features’ vs. ‘thin, sleek, elegant’ Apple iPod – November 09, 2006
Microsoft to pay Universal for every Zune sold – November 09, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft Zune may end up being a flop – November 08, 2006
Are 58% of iPod owners really thinking of a Zune switch? – November 08, 2006
Survey: 58% of iPod owners planning another MP3 player purchase will consider Microsoft’s Zune – November 01, 2006
Zune is from Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn’t want anybody to know about it – November 07, 2006
Microsoft Zune to be US-only, no firm plans to launch anywhere else globally – November 03, 2006
Five Microsoft Zune TV commercials – November 02, 2006
JupiterResearch: Apple’s iPod will dominate for foreseeable future; Microsoft’s Zune insignificant – October 25, 2006
Ellen DeGeneres Show gives away Microsoft Zunes, studio audience goes berserk – October 23, 2006
More Microsoft Zune myths explored – October 20, 2006
Five more Microsoft Zune myths – October 18, 2006
Microsoft Zune intensifies chaos in Apple iPod+iTunes also-ran market – October 16, 2006
Newsweek Q&A: Apple CEO Steve Jobs discusses iPod’s impact, Microsoft’s Zune, and more – October 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Ballmer: Zune device not money loser, wishes Apple’s 30GB iPod was $299 instead of $249 – October 11, 2006
Microsoft’s consumer electronics track record: long string of failures – October 11, 2006
MP3.com founder: ‘Zune will be an expensive failure for Microsoft because consumers aren’t stupid’ – October 06, 2006
Microsoft fails to secure key Zune domains – October 04, 2006
Microsoft rigs Zune with tricky pricing and proprietary money schemes – October 03, 2006
Why Microsoft’s Zune won’t kill Apple’s iPod – October 03, 2006
10 Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune myths – October 02, 2006
Analyst: Zune could lead to ‘civil war’ between Microsoft and Windows Media partners – September 29, 2006
Thurrott on Microsoft’s Zune: ‘The makings of a disaster, what the heck are these people thinking?’ – September 29, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune’s as good as dead on arrival – September 28, 2006
Microsoft sets 30GB Zune price at $249.99 – September 28, 2006
How Microsoft’s Zune can kill Apple’s iPod – September 21, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune insanity – September 21, 2006
The Microsoft Zune 1.0 dud – September 20, 2006
Microsoft’s underwhelming Zune a ‘viral DRM’ device – September 18, 2006
SanDisk teams with RealNetworks against new common foe: Microsoft Zune – September 18, 2006
Creative does Apple’s dirty work by immediately attacking Microsoft’s Zune – September 17, 2006
Motley Fool’s Jayson: Microsoft’s ‘just plain ugly’ Zune a meager offering, not an iPod killer – September 15, 2006
What’s in a name? ‘Zune’ a French-Canadian euphemism for penis or vagina – September 15, 2006
Crave at CNET: ‘Microsoft Zune, all the excitement that brown can bring’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune underwhelms – September 15, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft Zune ‘a design mistake’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft hypocrisy exposed with Zune: What ever happened to ‘choice?’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune with fake scroll wheel ‘hardly an Apple iPod killer’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune won’t spoil Apple’s biggest iPod Christmas ever – September 14, 2006
Microsoft unveils Zune 30GB player, Zune Marketplace; declines to disclose prices – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft’s Zune an ‘underwhelming’ repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat; no threat to Apple iPod – August 30, 2006
Microsoft confirms brick-like Zune to be made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft Zune is chunky brick made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft to sell single Zune model this fall, rumors of Wi-Fi capability were greatly exaggerated – August 10, 2006
Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions, several years on Zune trying to catch Apple iPod+iTunes – July 27, 2006
Zune: Apple cannot lose. Microsoft cannot win. – July 26, 2006
Since Microsoft has a huge war chest of money, this cancer will not go away.
So, to date, Universal has made $20 from Zunes sold in Manhattan.
This may be the first time P. T. Barnum’s axiom, “No-one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public,” is challenged.
Good
Donna Murphy is no fan of the ubiquitous iPod music player so on Tuesday she became one of the first to buy Microsoft’s new rival Zune device. ‘I just needed a new MP3 player to play my music and watch videos.
Good for her. If only more people had the courage of their anti-Apple convictions.
Will she still feel this way when she experiences the grainy video quality or has problems installing her Zune? Who knows? At least she’s made a stand. And she might find someone to network with in around a year.
‘I just needed a new MP3 player to play my music and watch videos,’ said Murphy, who bought a Zune at Best Buy’s midtown Manhattan store. ‘I’m not an Apple fan, not an iPod fan. So I wanted to try something different.'”
I hope it wasn’t DRMed. If so, she is SOL.
Hah.
Hey Donna,
The Zune doesn’t play videos.
DOH!
(In best Nelson from the Simpsons voice):
HA HA!!
“Good for her. If only more people had the courage of their anti-Apple convictions.”
Yeah… uh.. way to root against the good guys…Good job Donna.. Apple has gotten away with providing a stellar end-to-end experience long enough.
“I just needed a new MP3 player to play my music and watch videos,’ said Murphy, who bought a Zune at Best Buy’s midtown Manhattan store.’I’m not an Apple fan, not an iPod fan. So I wanted to try something different.'” There are a lot of people like her out there intimidated by coolness but even that’s ok. But why not buy a Sony, Creative or even Toshiba who actually makes the turd Zune? M$ fans are a bunch of ignorant herd!
You know, this whole I-can’t-like-it-cuz-it’s-popular things is so sad. I guess I went through that phase when I was in my early 20s as well, but it’s just so stupid. There are plenty of popular bands and products that are great, and there are PLENTY of unknown bands and products that are just awful.
There is no such thing as “alternative” any more. Hasn’t been for at least 15 years.
Hey mudflapper,
The Zune does play videos. The Zune Marketplace isn’t selling videos yet, but there’s nothing to stop you putting your own videos on there. Same as you can do in iTunes – buy from the iTunes Store or import your existing video collection.
Classic MDN headline! And, as far as Google is concerned, totally unique, too:
http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=selling+like+snotcakes
I made a trip to the local CompUSA store last night so that I could bad-mouth Zune. They didn’t have any and the sales kid never heard of it. He knew all about ipods. I walked over to the Mac section and hung-out for a few until a family approached the iBooks. They were possible switchers and I sold the crap out of Apple by telling the truth: My wife and I have owned 11 PC’s and switched to Mac four years ago and started a new and better life. I left them with the feeling that they would be new Apple fans. Zune sucks.
‘…selling like snotcakes.’
LMAO
MaWo: ‘going’. As in, nowhere.
“Donna Murphy is no fan of the ubiquitous iPod…”
There are not enough iPod “anti-fans” to make a difference. You know the product must suck if the primary reason for someone buying it is because she is “not an Apple fan, not an iPod fan. So I wanted to try something different.” She definitely got something “different”…
She wants to try something different yet she uses windows? When will she get her mac (or even install Linux) so she has a computer different from most people? Sounds like a contradiction to me.
Good work guys, your checks are in the mail.
Alex,
Really? Could’ve sworn I read that it’s video capabilities haven’t been activated yet, at all.
m
The cancer analogy is apt. From another version of the same Reuters article:
“Microsoft itself has acknowledged that the Zune investment may take years to bear fruit, and analysts upheld the expectation. . . . Microsoft is going to put tons of money in this over time, much like they did with the Xbox” video game console, she said. “It’s not about the first generation (of devices).”
It’s just going to take a bit of long-term patience, as Apple diligently continues to apply the latest iPod chemotherapy. So long as Apple continues to develop new and effective drugs, I believe they can beat this horrible disease.
If music players were food, iPods would be cakes. Apple would be selling the cakes slightly warmed up. The cakes would fly off the shelves with people snapping them up like they were going out of fashion.
The zune is a cold broth with lots of cooks trying to make it taste nice. They’d ruin it though. They’d think they were making it better but the surfeit of cooks would have a negative impact.
“I’m not an Apple fan, I love mediocrity and half-assed attempts,” said Donna Murphy. “And besides, I can’t wait to see the error screen that looks to have some girl-on-girl action and an Asian girl having an orgasm.”
Maybe no one knows about Zune yet that much. Maybe there asking the sales Person what is a Zune i never heard of it and the sales person says sir/mem its almost like the twin brother of Ipod but only one is made by Apple and other is Made by Microsoft. Bye
Maybe she can watch this on her Zune
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1750823427949463618&q=video+of+bsod
One of the obvious problems with Zune is that it is only able to partially compete with one iPod in Apple’s product line. Microsoft has no answer to the iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle; both of which account for most of the iPod sales. The Nano is the best selling iPod and the new Shuffle is going to be an outstanding seller in it’s own right.
I doubt for example that many women buy the regular iPod. How is Microsoft going to attract that part of the market? They’re not. Active people on the go? Not them either. So who exactly is their market? College students? Teenagers? Perhaps, but what percentage of the iPod buying market is that? And how many of them will switch?
Apple has a five year lead and a diverse product line that reaches all apsects of the digital music player buying market. How can Microsft compete with that? Any by the time Microsoft comes out with an answer to the Nano and Shuffle Apple will have innovated again and released an even better device.
So the only thing Zune can compete with is all the other players. Zune is the best thing to happen to Apple’s iPod. Zune will kill off all the other competition and Apple will be left with one inept competitor that they can innovate circles around.
I was tired of all the BMWs and Mercedes in my town. Everybody drives them. I wanted to drive something different; I just didn’t want to follow the leader, you know? So I just bought a used brown Yugo.
MacMental,
Thanks for the point. I was going to make it yesterday and forgot. Somehow this has been totally ignored by the fans of sites like this as well as the media.
Question for all of you: While Apple won’t tell us, what percentage of iPod sales do you think the 30GB Video takes up? I’ll bet it’s less than 10%.
So Microsoft isn’t competing against the iPod, because iPod means shuffle and three nanos and 30GB and 80GB video.
At best Microsoft is competing against 10% of the iPod line, and if they were able to take ALL of it (insert wild laugh here), it’s only 7.5% of the total market.
And they have NO market outside the US.
Serve me up some of those snotcakes!