“Microsoft has strongly advised Australians to avoid buying its Zune music player from local retailers,” Asher Moses reports for The Sydney Morning Herald. “The software giant is yet to announce plans to distribute the device in Australia, but that did not stop one Australian retailer from obtaining stock.”
“Mwave.com.au, an online store based in Sydney, sells the Zune for $389. It appears to be the first and only retailer in Australia to stock the player, although some second-hand units have been sold through eBay,” Moses reports. “An Mwave spokesman said ‘about 100 units’ had been sold since it began stocking the Zune in late December last year.”
Moses reports, “But a Microsoft spokeswoman urged: ‘We highly recommend that Australians do not purchase a Zune from this retailer at this time.’ The Mwave spokesman said the retailer had yet to receive a formal complaint from Microsoft, so its Zune sales would continue unabated.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “mpi” for the heads up.]
An online store — not a brick and mortar store confined to one outlet, but an online outlet readily available to the entire country of Australia — has sold 100 Zunes in approximately 50 days. Or two (2) per day in Australia. Two. Does Microsoft really need to “highly recommend” that Australians who are not buying Zunes, not buy Zunes? Yet, Australian Zune sales will “continue unabated!” If that’s not a joke, it should be. We’re continually amazed that some people survive daily life, despite being so obviously challenged.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Microsoft to announce plans to distribute their Zune failure in Australia or anywhere else.
Related articles:
Buh-bye: Senior Zune exec exits Microsoft – January 31, 2007
Last quarter: Microsoft lost $289 million on Zune, CE devices – January 26, 2007
RealMoney’s Comeau predicts: ‘Microsoft will kill the first Zune media player by midyear’ – December 16, 2006
Thurrott reviews Microsoft Zune: ‘a joke, a travesty, I can’t imagine what they were thinking’ – November 28, 2006
Ihnatko: Microsoft Zune experience about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face – November 24, 2006
TheStreet.com: It’s not looking good for Microsoft’s Zune; bad press may taint brand for years – November 24, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune selling like snotcakes – November 15, 2006
Crack-a-lackin’!
Jocko–Good on you Blue.
MW-attack–Hahahahaha
@ tommy
if the Zune is number 16 on the MP3 best sellers list, it means they don’t have more than 1/15’th of the market.
that’s not so great, and obviously their market share is much lower than that, because the number 1 on the list is selling a lot better than number 15.
Don’t let it bother you Jocko. Zune Tang (however many there actually are) is like our little pet freak. Remember the fat kid in Goonies?
I notice the Zune floats – it must have lots of fiber!
@Zune Tang
And its Oi! Oi! Oi!
Microsoft are being very quiet about firing the head of the Zune project… I heard there was some sort of scandal about it circulating in the corridors of Redmond. Bryan Lee left quietly the other day… http://www.crn.com/hardware/197002779
“Besides his work with Zune and the Xbox, Lee has also overseen business development of the Windows XP Media Center Edition, as well as the first deployments of Microsoft’s IPTV software with service providers worldwide.”
XP Media Center – ah, now there’s another Microsoft success story…
Ray: MS doesn’t hate Americans, it’s just that us Aussies are so lovable.
ChrissyOne: They can’t do Vegemite because Apple already owns the market for charging more money for black. But if they could make it taste like vegemite when you licked it, then it would perhaps be a way for us US-based Aussies to get Vegemite in through customs!
ZuneTang: To avoid any international incidents, please note that “galah” can be a term of affection (but not the way Jocko used it.)
MWD: “Comes” — As in “Zune comes to the market too late”
haha…no one here is stupid enough to buy a zune, microsoft don’t need to “tell us” that its crap.
Has Microsoft developed a conscience? I mean, first Microsoft tells consumers not to buy Zunes. Will we read that Microsoft advises consumers not to buy Vista, too?
Why stop at Australia?
Microsoft strongly advised mothers yesterday not to poison their children, and after a concerted diplomatic effort from its elder statesman, Bill Gates, managed to wrest a binding agreement from Icelandic VISTA users not to jump collectively into the sea.
Zune Tang,
Sorry for going for ya throat but it was 3.30a.m. and I just spat the dummy (got mad). Instead No flipin way try no bloody way. When we talk about Vegemite (yummo) we sometimes call it Veg. Sandwiches are called sangoes (spelling). If someone says they’re buggered it has nothing to with anal sex, it means tired. Alternatively, if an Australian says “buggered if I know” then they honestly don’t know. And some of us still say “Fair Dinkum” and that means you’re kidding or that someone is an honest person. I could go on but I’m still pretty buggered from last night and I’ve got make lunch which is two Veg sangoes.
P.S. Just to make you Northern Hemisphere types drool. I’ve got a day off from work and I’m off to Coogee Beach so I can veg out (relax).