“Microsoft Corp., chasing the speeding iPod train, will [ship] a lineup of its Zune hand-held music and video players next month,” Joseph Menn reports for The Los Angeles Times Staff.
“Analysts said the new Zunes, which Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled to reporters in Redmond, Wash., on Tuesday, might help the company hold on to its sliver of the market and perhaps gain some ground against fledgling entrants. But Microsoft wasn’t given much chance of taking customers from Apple Inc.,” Menn reports.
“‘They’re not going to gain against Apple because there is nothing really innovative about what they’re doing,’ said Van Baker, a vice president at Gartner Group,” Menn reports.
Menn reports, “Microsoft spokesman Chris Stephenson said the company was aiming for more than 10% of the part of the market where the smaller Zunes would compete, which is new territory for Microsoft. Overall, he said, ‘our goal is to be the main No. 2.'”
Menn reports, “‘It’s fine to say you want to be a credible alternative to Apple,’ Jupiter Research Vice President Michael Gartenberg said. ‘But the market isn’t looking for credible alternatives. People are looking for iPods.'”
Full article, which unfortunately confuses the iPod touch with the iPhone, here.
Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg, “Microsoft was the fourth-biggest seller of portable digital players in the first half with 3 percent of the market, compared with Apple’s 71 percent, according to NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, New York. Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, sold 1.2 million Zunes between their November release and June, less than 3 percent of the iPod’s sales in the same time.”
“As for this Christmas, the new versions won’t help Microsoft gain significant ground on Apple, said Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner Inc. in San Jose, California. The current second-biggest competitor, SanDisk Corp., isn’t standing still either, he said… ‘Apple is a moving target,’ Baker said. ‘Every time someone says we can make a product that’s competitive with Apple, guess what, that product isn’t there anymore.'”
Full article here.