Is Microsoft’s desperation showing already?
MacDailyNews and iPodDailyNews readers have noted that Amazon.com is currently offering $20 off the Microsoft Zune (white) model, $25 off black Zunes and $28 off brown Zunes.
In addition, the few Microsoft Zune accessories that exist are also being discounted at Amazon.
The “Fix Your Thinking” blog notes that OfficeMax is offering $20 off all Microsoft Zunes via an email flyer. Fix Your Thinking asks, “Has Apple ever discounted the iPod for anything more than a retail storewide black Friday sale?”
Related articles:
Microsoft Zune plummets to 5th place in U.S. digital media player market share with 2.1 percent – December 04, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft needs to ‘rethink’ as interest in Zune fades fast – December 01, 2006
Amazon’s bestselling MP3 players list chronicles Microsoft Zune dud – November 20, 2006
Give up Microsoft, admit you cocked it up and put the things into the recycle bin…
someone needs to share this with the Rtards over @ ‘zunescene.com’..I tell you those guys really are walking
amongst the clouds….MW word : clueles as in they are clueless.
and FYI, even with a $28 discount…the Zune is too much $$$, I’d pay $5 and expect change back…shoot.
Let’s not forget MS has said they are in this for the long haul. These initial hiccups and slow sales mean NOTHING to them. If it takes a long while for Zune to reach some kind of saturation, that still creates some kind of user base that has potential for growth to match and/or overtake the iPod.
Apple hasn’t discounted their products, and neither is Microsoft. Retailers absolutely have discounted iPods. I’m looking at the cover of MacConnection right now — “Save up to $20 on new iPods.”
MDN: Shhhh. Grownups are talking.
Right now the Zune is being beaten out by an iTunes Music Card on the Amazon.com electronic bestsellers list.
They should give away a free iPod with every Zune purchase. Then I’d buy one. Maybe.
zunescene.com, wow that’s a fugly site.
Winston – I agree as long as it’s an iPod Video!!
“Comes with a free 24 pack of Charmin, so you can load AND unload”
“Zune, the one that goes *SQUIRT* in your ___”
“Zune, the fruitcake of presents!”
“Hey, a cat tried to cover my Zune up!”
I don’t think the OxyClean guy could even sell one.
I think the Zune absolutely sucks, but there is no story here. Amazon, Circuit City, and others routinely mark down iPods anywhere from 5-10% off. All you have to do is go to their sites right now and see for yourself. Smart shoppers haven’t been paying full retail for iPods for quite some time now….
Slightly OT:
My 6 year old saw the Zune in Staples last weekend. Got very frustrated when he couldn’t find any games…
OMG! Where’s Zune Tang? Is he all right? Or is he stuck in a meeting at Microsoft, and can’t get to a computer just yet? Hope he gets here quick, or the project manager at the FUD department may have to fire him…
I wonder if MDN makes more money off of articles related to Apple or Microsoft?
There seems to be a HUGE abundance of MS articles on this site and they all get very high amount of comments. I bet MDN’s pay-per-click for MS articles is very large.
Hmm….
Bye.
PC Apologist:
A wise man once said, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” Clearly, Zune 1.0 is ample evidence of this truism.
If there ever IS a Zune 2.0, MonkeySoft will have to wage a fierce uphill battle to gain back the respect and support of the portable-music-buying consumer.
Meanwhile, and long before the Z2 appears, the upcoming ViPod will be kicking ass and taking names with its touchless screen, massive hard drive, HD movie support, and more.
Be prepared to apologize as you never have before!
Microsoft’s next business plan.
Pull 2 Billion out of the bank and mail a free Zune to every house hold in the US.
Zune should go back to where it came from. Zuppository?
Gman, thanks for the link. It let me find this gem: http://www.zunescene.com/zune-on-mac/
The Zune will be a dead product before June 2007 arrives for there supposed 1 million sold. It will never happen. No one wants to buy a defective product and that’s what the Zune is. Wireless not worth a damn, not compatable with any music except from the Zune ripoff store. The Zune ripoff store is the other failure in this whole thing. Can’t buy songs individually without paying for 5 songs first in a stupid points system which basically lets Microsoft keep the rest. Incompatible with any other format. It’ just a crappy product all the way through.
Desperation? Hardly. Have you iPod lemmings ever heard of something called generosity? The good folks in Redmond are spreading some holiday cheer to beleaguered consumers with their thoughtful and considerate discounting.
Do you think the selfish copycats in Cupertino would ever discount prices for shoppers? No. Apple doesn’t have a clue when it comes to end user satisfaction like Microsoft does. With Apple it’s all about monopolistic business dealings, proprietary formats and “just good enough” product. Some things never change.
Hey iPod lemmings, break free of Apple’s tyranny and save a little money by picking up one of those fantastic Zunes. Get one for the kids too. They’ll be the envy of the neighborhood with that brown thing in their hands.
Welcome to the Social.
Did you see on the zunescene.com comparison chart that they have a category for Virus:
Preloaded Virus…Zune None…iPod RavMonE.exe
Taken directly from the zunescene.com site:
“Analysts Fear iPod Loosing it’s Cool”
For crying out loud, HOW MANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS CAN THEY MAKE IN A SIX-WORD TITLE?
The correct word is “losing,” not “loosing”!
And the correct word is “its,” not “it’s”!
It just goes to show ya’, Zune aficionados can’t read, write, or think within standard communication constructs. Pathetic.
Glad you made it, Zune Tang. How was the meeting? Is the weather alright in Redmond?
They’ll be the envy of the neighborhood with that brown thing in their hands.
Zune Tang, you crack me up.
Welcome to the Suppository.
“Glad you made it, Zune Tang. How was the meeting? Is the weather alright in Redmond?”
If you’re curious – no.
It’s bloody miserable today, had a big wind storm last night and trees are down and power is out all over the area.
Ballmer might not make it in to work today, so if you need to get hold of him, call the Woodland Park Zoo.
-c
MW ‘say’ (anything you want, as long as it’s ‘squirt’)
If you go to Amazon and look up iPods for sale – everyone has been discounted $10 – 20!
And they still have lots and lot of last generation Nanos for sale – not selling, eh???
Gosh – is Apple desparate, too??!!???
It’s very windy today in Redmond’s neighborhood, perfect background for indoor flying chairs!
you guys are all dumb tools. props to ZuneTang for inciting board riots with his excellent witty sarcasm. props to MDN idiots that cannot screen out ZuneTang’s satire.
Dorks.
Desparate? Let me guess…public school…public university…lol
You Apple lovers are all poo=poo heads. Microsoft is the best, Apple sux. Zune good-ipod bad.
Oh Sorry, that’s Zune Tang’s schtick.
Thanks for waking him up CLYDE!!!!!!! You twit.
From Gman: ” someone needs to share this with the Rtards over @ ‘zunescene.com’ “
Interestingly, at the zunescene site under “Zune Gains Momentum” a graph showing iLounge daily page downloads sinking, while zunescene daily page downloads rise and surpass those of iLounge. This is suposed to indicate Zune crushing the ipod. The graph states “data is generated by Alexa 3rd party traffic ranking”‘ which is certainly meant to imply this is unbiased data. From the Alexa site one finds:
“Alexa, now a subsidiary of Amazon, tracks the popularity of websites via information collected anonymously from users of the Alexa toolbar.”
So only those who with this tool bar installed are counted. And, the Alexa site itself states:
“because the toolbar requires the Windows version of Internet Explorer 5.0 or later (see requirements below), the data gathered by Alexa will obviously be biased against sites which attract users from other platforms. Alexa data will favour sites with a primarily Windows user base; so, for example, enthusiast sites dedicated to the Macintosh or to the Linux operating system would be expected to show almost zero presence in Alexa rankings.”
So much for unbiased rankings.
To Rocket Scientist,
If you look at the chart, it is very misleading. It shows current sales not total sales. And with iPods projected to hit 17 million this xmas, the chart starts looking like a slow constant upslope wtih spikes each xmas. Hmmm, It would be interesting to show that chart with total sales, I think it would look like a series of sloping steps.
N.
I saw iPod Nano’s with good discounts from FYE at the mall in Texas yesterday – they were $169 after a mail-in rebate for a 4GB I believe.
“Apple doesn’t have a clue when it comes to end user satisfaction like Microsoft does.”
THAT line is an instant classic! LMFAO ! ! ! Eyes tearing up.
Man, that was good!
Quick question. Isn’t Vista basically just a Solitaire game that requires thousands of dollars of cheaply made computer hardware?
Take it to him Buster! Zune Tang is a butt munch troll on the M$ payroll. Don’t read his/her posts! Zune sux.
Thank you Buster! Your post is CLASSIC!
Welcome to the Social Isolation
C’mon people,
Zune Tang is being sarcastic. The fact that this has to be explained to anyone is embarrassing.
m
I’ve gotten used to the idea that the Zune is not a real product.
Winusers hate when the best company that is APPLE comes the best in computers and so on and so on…,maybe in the future microsoft will be known as the enterprise of the copycats and the poo-unes,MS only are third-party parts of a computer and a system that doesn´t rule correctly ,microsoft is not a company,is a poo
It’s seems that Amazon isn’t the only retailer that ordered too many Zunes (one is too many) that are filling shelves. Meijer (similar to Wal-Mart) is giving a $25 gift card to Zune purchasers. This isn’t a Microsoft thing, they are giving away gift cards to clear the sh*t from their shelves. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and discontinued carrying the Zune.
I have noticed that this past weekend’s Sears flyer included a page devoted to the Zune mentioning the radio tuner, file sharing and GAMES in large letters at the top of the page. This piqued my interest, as I didn’t know you could play games on a Zune. There was a mention of the Zune working with the Xbox, but no picture of the Xbox or pricing for the Xbox on this page, nor in the rest of the flyer. Then I realized that Microsoft is the only one playing games with the Zune. Interesting none-the-less.
Is this a surprise to anyone with half a brain? The Zune was a recycled, has-been product before it ever hit the shelves!
mudflapper…
We are not idiots and if you had read (and understood) numerous earlier posts, we understand the satire. I will say it one last time and slowly using small words…..he/she/it (ZT) is frikken repetitive. If I told you the same ‘knock knock’ joke everyday for months, you would be ready to knock my block off after awhile.
Get it?
Good!
This goes for all you other handitards who whine about the wonderous satirical prose and why others just simply do not understand.
Sheeesh
Last Saturday night, at the BB store in Nashua, NH, I HAD TO ASK to see a Zune. They were kept in a locked cabinet under the main display.
I asked why they were not out on display….and was told that they do not fit on the exitsing PFS display holders, and that a new holder was several weeks off. When I asked how they expected to sell any Zunes, all I got was a shrug.
Meanwhile, people were swarming the iPod & accessories displays.
Just fscking incredible.
Only the OfficeMax comment is newsworthy here.
Apple itself has only discounted iPods on Black Friday, although they have given them away with Mac purchases.
Outside of Apple, iPods have been discounted by many online or catalog retailers – $5-$20, including Amazon, MacConnection, MacWarehouse, etc.
But I’ve not ever seen a brick-and-mortar store advertise a dollars-off iPod, not even on Black Friday. Instead, they toss in a freebie, like a gift card, or an FM transmitter, or sleeve, etc.
I think this is so because of the way Apple writes its retail agreements.
Why would anyone buy a Brown MP3 player? Does Microsoft strive for BLAH? That’s all I can say…BLAH.
Zune Tang is Pojama People.
I still think that Zune Tang is a mr softy employee who gets paid to trash any MDN articles involving Zunes. This explains why he is on a Mac message board, but only when an article has Zune in the byline. He doesn’t trash ANY of the Mac, or even iPod, articles, but only shows up for Zune pieces (as opposed to ‘pieces of Zune’). If he was a unemployed gaming slacker or a special needs homeschooler, he’d be ragging on the other articles.
Okay, either THAT, or he is a homeless person who gets kicked off the terminal in the public library after fifteen or twenty minutes.
We had a plumber visit yesterday to fix a problem in our kitchen.
When he squatted down and worked his way under the sink, I got a nice view of his buttcrack. I swear there was some Zune in there. Maybe one, maybe more, I couldn’t really tell.
I told him he needed to spackle that crack right quick and clean up the Zune.
MW south — where Zune sales are headed fast
I had to bring my dog to the vet, the other day.
Worms.
Had to bring a Zune sample.
He might have a virus, too.
I was “selected” by Amazon to receive special pricing of $90 for a Zune… part of their customers vote on a deal plan.
So when Apple slashes the iPod price $50 (in response to the Zune announcement by MS)it’s brilliant, when Amazon (not MS) slashes the Zune price it’s desperation?
MS is not desperate about anything, the MSRP is still the same.
Dear Selected,
Offer them $25. You should be able to resell it for at least $30!
clyde & Buster get it.
Continually humorous, enlightening and informative comments. Keep posting!
Your potential. Our passion.
“If he was a unemployed gaming slacker or a special needs homeschooler . . .”
There’s a difference?
“It just goes to show ya’, Zune aficionados can’t read, write, or think within standard communication constructs”
Well they are Microsoft fanboys, right? You’ll have to be a MS-fanboy©® to understand their proprietary spelling system.
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Actually, who cares? The company is a bloody mess and it’s beginning to show. Or people are starting to pay attention. Whatever.
Makes me wonder: Why do they have brown shit? There should be blood in it. No, wait! The brown turd has green in it!!! The’re ALIENS!?!! 😮
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I’m tellin’ youz, it’s like watchin’ Air America swirlin’ around the bowl. Man, that radio network is a piece o’ work. And it runs on the same kind o’ wish think. Maybe George Soros could by a couple a hundred thousand Zunes? Keep the brand above water. Wouldn’t want the Zune to sink. That would be, well, like, unhealthy.
Ya know?
Hey Buster,
Up yours.
m
“Is Microsoft’s desperation showing already?”
Like a drunk Britney flashing her deforested crotch to the world.
Actually, a fish rots form the inside out. It’s just noticable on the head first. Same idea, though. Inside out. Top down Inside down. Top out.
Whatever.
Microsoft is the big suck. Hear it? You’re too damn close.
Yeah.
@Clyde: “OMG! Where’s Zune Tang? Is he all right?”
Cut ZT a break! Steve Ballmer, I mean, “ZUNE TANG” is a very busy person this time of year, just before Macworld. Like Santa on Christmas Eve, he has to visit all Mac forums all over the world and leave a squirt of his droppings for each and every MacMac in all of them.
When I was in last week the 80gig was ~$330. The 30 and nanos were similarly discounted. If they had the zune they would have discounted those too though i’m not surprised they don’t. They thrive on high volume.
Mudflapper….then don’t dish it out and imply people are stupid based on not reading their numerous posts on the subject. Was I a lttle strong….probably. Sorry…was getting frustrated.
I’ll by 2 when they hit $15 a piece, for testing purposes. I’ll let you all know when I’ve worked out how to make a song play forever after its been squirted between the 2 Zunes.
Teflon,
Anything .exe won’t run on a Mac, it’s like dropping a fly into a jar of honey. what’s it gonna do. Macs can be carriers I suppose of viruses, but unless it’s written for Mac it won’t work.
Oh No, at other online stores people are discounting black 30GB iPods down to $219, or a massive $30 off. Nanos can be had for $20 off for the 2gb model or $30 off for the 8GB model. the 80GB iPod can be had for a massive $40 off. You can even get 5 bucks off a Shuffle.
Apple is doomed.
“He might have a virus, too.”
Wonder where he got that from, have you been squirting him?
The significant argument here is that retailers like OficceMax have sold little to no Zunes.
For the “Zune Tang” type posts … online retailers don’t have the same inventory overhead of retailers … as most are drop ship. Typically your online retailers are affiliates and are either making less than 1% on the sale or just hoping for a “pendant purchase” = a purchase along with the iPod.
Most B&M retailers are sold out of shuffles and most colors of Nanos. ALL B&M retailers have ALL flavors of the Zune.