“Video-game retailer GameStop has decided to stop selling Microsoft’s Zune players at its stores due to what it sees as insufficient demand from customers,” Priya Ganapati reports for TheStreet.com
“The move is unlikely to affect GameStop, whose sales come almost completely from video games but it puts up another hurdle in Microsoft’s attempt to grow Zune sales,” Ganapati reports.
“‘We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated,’ said a GameStop spokesperson,” Ganapati reports.
“GameStop made the decision about a month ago,” Ganapati reports. “GameStop said it will sell Zune players online until it clears out its inventory.”
“GameStop has hundreds of stores across the country and losing that distribution channel could hurt Zune sales,” Ganapati reports.
MacDailyNews Note: GameStop has over 4,400 stores located throughout the United States and 15 countries.
“Microsoft has sold about 2 million Zunes since the device’s release in Nov. 2006,” Ganapati reports.
MacDailyNews Take: 2 million Zunes sold to actual customers or 2 million Zunes sold by Microsoft to retailers like GameStop (meaning: 2 million shipped) that are currently sitting on store shelves covered in dust? We strongly suspect the latter, since finding a Zune in the wild is even harder than finding a satisfied Vista sufferer. In case you were wondering, Apple has sold about 85 million iPods since Nov. 2006.
Full article here.
Is the charade finally beginning to end or did Yahoo-obsessed Balmy just forget to send GameStop last month’s Zune subsidy check?
Steve Ballmer is on a short list for a position in John McCain’s administration should he be elected President.
Ahahahahaha… oh well, maybe the ads that users will see will help them sell a billion of these.
“Is the charade finally beginning to end or did Yahoo-obsessed Balmy just forget to send GameStop last month’s Zune subsidy check?”
Hmmmmm how else can they sell that piece of ” I want to be an iPod, but I don’t know how” crap.
Wow great “reporting”
Poor Zunies. I guess they have to squirt themselves.
I have seen ONE Zune outside a store. My wife’s 12 year old cousin inadvertently bought one when he got his XBox. I played with it for a little bit. The only thing it had going for it was that it was not the brown model.
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Even he thinks it sucked, but I guess at 12 the mind is still pretty young to make good buying decisions.
Makes you wish there were business rules that forced companies to give details on every product they sell.
“GameStop has hundreds of stores across the country and losing that distribution channel could hurt Zune sales”
I think having a crappy product is going to hurt sales more.
@MDN:
It’s a little two-faced to question whether Microsoft’s sales claims are actual sales and not just shipped units, and not question Apple or any other manufacturer the same way. I also fail to see any support for your belief that the 2 million number is just shipped and sitting on store shelves.
MDN, lose the hardcore-fanboy attitude. I have no problem with appropriate bashing of MS or other companies (Apple included) where facts support it, but your take on this is completely without merit. I’m sure Apple sells iPods to retailers in much the same manner as Zunes are.
If you want to make a smart-ass comment, then simply do that and we can all have a good laugh. Don’t try to pass off your dig as factual.
A neighbor of mine bought a Zune for his 10 year old daughter. It was on sale for $70.
I live in Redmond and i know only 1 person who has a Zune… haha.
What if they came up with another DRM license to complement Zune & PlaysForSure & Vista? It’d have to be something catchy though like SquirtsForSure.
Redmond’s going to have trouble selling that ad space they were planning for those Zunes.
Buy an ad-spot on the Zunes and you don’t exactly buy many eyeballs. Steve Ballmer, Paul Thurrott, and that fat guy with the tattoos get to see them and that’s about it.
bizlaw,
A couple of points:
1. It is much harder to “hide” 85 million units in the channel than a paltry 2 million.
2. All of us here can actually easily find iPods in the hands of real people. Not so with Zune.
Thanks for playing.
Hey now, there *are* zunes out there in the wild, my sisters best friend has an aunt who knows a broker whose brothers friend is a zune owner.
For a little light relief — The most evil man in the universe calls the most evil company in the universe:
Fsck, I knew that thing my crazy bald asshole nephew gave me was a piece of shit.
(That’s why I secretly bought myself an iPod touch last year. Shhh!)
Bizlaw, most of us are really here to read MDN’s take, if you don’t like it then there are plenty of other news sites around
The Zune, it zucked!
The SPIFs stopped as MS started to looking at saving cash to buy Yahoo. Ballmer figured retailer would suck it up and do what MS wants them to do. GameStop will pay the wrath of Ballmer when MS cuts their Xbox allocations and their hot title shipments on new releases. Ballmer might even toss a chair at GameStop CEO. GameStop is after all the number one seller of the Zune.
Apple should approach GameStop about selling the iPods touch with game gift cards for the App Store.
@ Journo
“It is much harder to “hide” 85 million units in the channel than a paltry 2 million.”
Paltry, indeed. I wonder how many iPod Touches Apple has sold, and the Borg hasn’t even got anything advanced enough to compete with that.
AFAIK, Apple have sold something like 4 million iPhones and that’s a genuine figure — you can’t get one now even if you want one, because they’re out of stock.
The number of iPod Touches sold must run to similar figures.
SPLASH !!!
I don’t think there’s any question that the iPod touch has outsold the Zune at this point.
Memo sent to all Microsoft employees on a biannual basis:
DON’T FORGET: As an employee of Microsoft Corporation you are required to purchase ten (10) Zunes twice per year.
Will that be cash, check, or charge?
@chair-throwing, simian-like CEO
“For a little light relief — The most evil man in the universe calls the most evil company in the universe:”
I’m sure Gates phones Ballmer all the time
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I get BizLaw’s point.
Usually I just ignore MDN when its in Super FanBoi mode (unless its really funny!). Just like most everybody will ignore what I just said. (Unless you find this funny, then you’re welcome)
HA HA HA. Microsoft should just quit. It’s almost as bad as the XBOX. Or Windows!
“Yes, I never saw one either”
Craig Ferguson on “The Late Show”
“We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated.”
lol, like skidmarks in your underwear have appeal.
“GameStop said it will sell Zune players online until it clears out its inventory.”
I sure hope they don’t have more than, you know, one or two of the Zune thingies in inventory, otherwise they could take a loo-o-ong time to clear out….
@bizlaw “MDN, lose the hardcore-fanboy attitude”
how, exactly, did you conclude that MDN was anything other than a hard-core Mac site?
Have you ever saw a Zune? I have saw many many iPods, iPhones (even in countries where the iPhone has not been officially released).
Also, I have see many people who has brought Apples’s OS original. But even that I know many more people who uses microsoft windows, none, absolutely none of the has brought the OS, they got it with the computer or they get it from a P2P sharing program.
By the way, did you pay for your windows copy or it came pre loaded in your computer?
Insufficient demand? Ha! The real story is there is insufficient supply. Microsoft can’t make these things fast enough and GameStop got tired of keeping the empty shelf space reserved for the blowout bestseller. In it’s place are used Gamecube games.
If you’re diligent in your search I’m sure you can find a Zune. I recommend getting up early on Sunday morning and getting in line with the rest of us at you local Best Buy or Circuit City. Hopeufully they won’t run out. Good Luck!
Your potential. Our passion.™
Think about this for a second…
Assume Microsoft is telling the truth about how many Zune’s have been sold (2,000,000). If GameStop was the ONLY retailer selling Zune’s they would sold less than one per day per store… 25.25 per store per month by my math counting back for 18 months.
That is amazingly pathetic even of Microsoft!!!
@bizlaw
I don’t think that MDN’s take is particularly unfair. Whether it is 2 million sold/shipped, Zune is a highly unprofitable product and has not been well received outside of a few “fanboy” sites. Moreover, a very significant percentage of Zunes appear to have been sold at cut rate prices (e.g., a 30GB Zune from Amazon for $90) to clear retailers unsold inventory. The All-Mighty Ballmer even admitted that Microsoft has failed to figure out how to make money from the Zune.
There is also a pattern of sales “deception” from Microsoft. Claims that Vista sales are going well ring particularly hollow. My own organization of 10,000 + employees is almost exclusively PC. We buy NEW PCs with Vista and our IT staff then erase and install an XP image (downgrade). But Microsoft claims (rightly or wrongly) both the Vista sale AND the XP license in their installed base. Hence each computer is viewed as 2 by Microsoft.
The problem with bizlaw’s complaint is that Apple is regularly reported as not publicly commenting on sales figures. The only time you find out is at their Qtrly Earnings Reports (which is why they have become such an ‘event’). Microsoft, on the other hand, is notorious for bragging about how many copies of Windows or Zunes they sold to any reporter that will listen, even when the reality (as MDN states) is that the products have been pumped into the sales channel. When we hear simultaneous reports from Foxconn that they’ve shipped 10 million iPhone and from Apple that they’ve sold 10 million iPhones, then bizlaw will have a case.
“Waiter, whatever Zune Tang is having, I’ll have it too. In fact, make it a double.”
Damn Zune Tang, you drink, eat, and poop the Microsoft KoolAid don’t you?
I’ve seen pictures my niece and nephew have shown me featuring friends, and spotted 2 zunes. So they each know 1 kid with one.
I have seen one zune in the “wild”-my coworker got it as a free giveaway.
It may be clunky with crappy buttons and a squircle-but it was free and does play music.
“Think about this for a second…
Assume Microsoft is telling the truth about how many Zune’s have been sold (2,000,000). If GameStop was the ONLY retailer selling Zune’s they would sold less than one per day per store… 25.25 per store per month by my math counting back for 18 months.”
lol! didn’t think of it like that. that truly is sad…..
MS must be feeling “the pinch” now. They couldn’t sell more Zunes even if they included a roll of toilet paper with each one.
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@ericdano
ZuneTang® is the resident tongue and cheek. Read his/her posts with that in mind and find the humor.
@bizlaw:
You are wrong on this one.
It has been widely documented by many news sources that Microsoft publicizes “units sold” as “units shipped to retailers”. This is one of Microsoft’s deceptive tactics that they use on a regular basis.
Microsoft is using similar deception with Vista “sales”.
…whereas when Apple reports quarterly earnings, they report revenue generated from iPods, Macs, etc. In other words, units sold, money received for them.
Two very different standards for reporting. MS does theirs, Apple their own. In the end, nobody still knows how many owners of Zune are there.
The truth usually comes out in the end.
No Squirt For Them.
“‘We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated,’ said a GameStop spokesperson,” Ganapati reports.
What? It had even less appeal than a turd?
iPods have been around long enough that there is the secondary market to consider as well-even though apple doesn’t get any of that money, if you throw in the numbers of iPods that have been sold and then re-sold . . . staggering.
@Canada Mark
I agree with your Vista analysis. The SEC should really set in place some clear rules as to how a company can report a “unit sold” versus a “unit shipped”.
It would be fun to see 2,000,000 Zunes shipped and 1,000,000 Zunes actually sold.
“It would be fun to see 2,000,000 Zunes shipped and 1,000,000 Zunes actually sold.”
have you ever used one? gone into a store and tried one out?
if so,you would know that 1 million sold is likely still to high……
“what a hunk of junk!” -movie quote guy
“”GameStop made the decision about a month ago,” Ganapati reports”
and nobody noticed until today…..
@shen
Ya, I know I was being generous but I figured between the 12 Microsoft Executives who bought them for their kids (who then tossed ’em in the trash) and the Gates Foundation who bought 999,872 for distribution in third world countries like Canada (the only other place they are suppose to be available…), that it might come to a million.
Microsoft has sold about 2 million Zunes since the device’s release in Nov. 2006
Apple has sold about 85 million iPods since Nov. 2006.
To really be fair, how many Mac OS X installs, versus PC Windows installs, have been sold during the same period?
Doesn’t that make Mac “paltry” as well for comparable, single-digit market share?
So are we consistent or not? Before the f-lames start, I am no MS apologist, their stuff really is shit. But if we’re gonna define what’s a success, shouldn’t that definition be applied equally?
lol this is awesome I work at GameStop and yes we sit on Zune’s and we only sold one since it was released and it was returned because the person who is mentally slow didn’t know he had to have a computer to put music onto the device so woohoo no more brown Zune’s to sit behind me while I work!
Look! As of now, a Zune model is on top of all iPod models except for one on Amazon’s Bestsellers list:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics//ref=sv_e_1
It’s the beginning of the end.
Still in denial…!
@ bizlaw:
I think the fact that the iPod increases in sales each quarter is a definite sign that when Apple reports numbers, the numbers must be close what consumers have actually purchased.
If they were sitting on retail shelves everywhere, the sales numbers would not be increasing each quarter.
Solved?
The Amazon Bestseller list in electronics is highly suspect, given that #1, updated every hour, somehow always manages to be the Kindle, Amazon’s own turd.
Insufficient Demand…
Boy O Boy did NBC land a deal or what…!
@ the other side
You are totally flawed friend.
Apple’s sales increase every quarter in numbers and percentages.
The Zune, alas, is doomed.
If it WERE a big seller, or even a decent seller, GameStop would not drop it.
The other side of your backside…
Also, OS X sales are seeing the same increasing trends.
If you’re going to make an analogy, do it right.
@ the other side
Market share != success
16 billion dollars in the bank with no debt == success
kthx
I work as a teacher in a fairly large high school–about 600 students per graduating class. Every day I see hundreds of iPods in the hallways, the cafeteria, etc. In the 18 months since Zune’s release, I have seen exactly two. And both were the 30GB, $90 specials.
@bizlaw
You shouldn’t speak so loudly when you speak from ignorance.
There’s evidence that MS stuffed the retail channel with Xbox 360s in order to meet its sales projections – go look through its boom-and-bust shipping data, or check out roughlydrafted.com.
There’s also evidence, though lesser, that MS stuffed the retail channel with Zunes in order to meet its “1 million sold by June 2007 sales projection”. But based on what it clearly did with Xbox 360s, there’s little reason to believe it didn’t do the same thing with the Zune.
I know 2 people with Zunes. One admits to never using it because it was a gift. The other has become frustrated because the copy protection prevents media from being played, even some with no copy protection.
Fatc: M$hit announced ‘sales’ last year and then suddenly we have $250 zunes for $99 all over the place – and still they are NOT selling.
There is a lot of evidence that M$ shipped a million to various retailers who cant sell them.
Apple dont do this, have no need to do this, and oddly enough , there is no evidence or even gossip to show Apple ‘filling the channel’ with unwanted goods. Ever.
You are out of touch buddy.
THE ZUNE IS OVER – prove to me it aint.
@ the other side: Idiotic analogy – we are talking MP3 players, not OS installs, actually.
But to continue in your vein…:
To be fair, lets see how many cups of coffee SBUX sold last year – way more than any Apple or Microsoft sold put together!
Lets hope SBUX dont come up with a cool OS….!
Oh my god!
How much did Microsft increase their business last year?
Oh, right, they didnt.
er…Apple did – by more than 60%.
Think before you post?
Or not.
Canada Mark’s comment is buried in these comments but it is probably the most important bit of information here:
“There is also a pattern of sales “deception” from Microsoft. Claims that Vista sales are going well ring particularly hollow. My own organization of 10,000 + employees is almost exclusively PC. We buy NEW PCs with Vista and our IT staff then erase and install an XP image (downgrade). But Microsoft claims (rightly or wrongly) both the Vista sale AND the XP license in their installed base. Hence each computer is viewed as 2 by Microsoft.”
Will you guys stop beating up on me … or I’ll call my mummy.
🙁
welcome to the social… err, solitary zombie party!
Well you heard it from the Zune Thang, what a compliment to Apple.
“Insufficient demand? Ha! The real story is there is insufficient supply.”
I guess that the incompetent MS can only produce about 2 million Zunes. Thank goodness for a competent company like Apple, that can supply 85 million of them.
And furthermore from his quote “Microsoft can’t make these things fast enough and GameStop got tired of keeping the empty shelf space reserved for the blowout bestseller.” In it’s place are used Gamecube games and some of the iPods that Apple can so competently supply.
“If you’re diligent in your search I’m sure you can find a Zune.”
Who knows, this insightful comment might replace finding a needle in a haystack.
And finally such a personal insight: “I recommend getting up early on Sunday morning and getting in line with the rest of us at you local Best Buy or Circuit City.”
Ah, wait a minute, something is missing there from the Zune Thang:
“I recommend getting up early on Sunday morning and getting in line with the rest of us {WHO CAN’T GET LAID ON A SATURDAY NIGHT} at you local Best Buy or Circuit City.”
Your potential. Our passion.™
I’ve seen 2 Zunes on the NYC subway.
One was red and small and kind of cute, like the chick holding it.
The other I was staring at and the owner shot me a nasty look. I was tempted to pull out my iPod and wave it in his face, but I laughed at him instead. That was NOT appreciated.
@Zune Tang
“If you’re diligent in your search I’m sure you can find a Zune. I recommend getting up early on Sunday morning and getting in line with the rest of us at you local Best Buy or Circuit City.”
PMSL
So you buy a new Zune every Sunday morning then ZT?
They aren’t very good then are they if they only last a few days before you have to replace them.
ZT – you need to see a therapist. You’re in denial. Get an iPod for goodness sake and save yourself a few grand a year.
No, no! Definitely… M$ as tried to gather more monney for Yahoo’s acquisition and simply would forget to give up some for Zune’s subsides, like Jubel pointed out at the begening of this thread.
No, no! Definitely… Micornsoft as tried to gather more monney for Yahoo’s acquisition and simply would forget to give up some for Zune’s subsides, like Jubel pointed out at the begening of this thread.
@ nekogami13
I too won a zune. I still use my “video” ipod rather than the zune. I wonder how many of the zune “sales” were promo giveaways?
Worse for M$ than having a cheaper, unintuitive product was having a cheaper, unintuitive product that was waaaaay late to the mp3 player ballgame. As bad as it is, it still would have competed better if they had not been so late to get a product to market. Innovation wins longterm, and as much as I love my classic iPod, the iPod Touch(and iphone) makes even it look dinosaurish. Only to be a fly on the wall at M$, RIMM, Sony, and Nokia’s boardroom. They all are soooo tired of starting from scratch. Steve’s vision and dreams were so far ahead of everyone else’s.
Fly me to the Zune
Let me sing among those stars
Let me see what Zune is like
On jupiter and mars
(cause that is the only place you will find one)
P.S. Sorry Frank
“Innovation wins longterm, and as much as I love my classic iPod, the iPod Touch(and iphone) makes even it look dinosaurish.”
Yeah, but MS did come out with a pink Zune model (http://www.iwantapinkzune.com/).
Maybe Proctor & Gamble should buy up all of the pink Zunes and give them away with each bottle of their gastric distress product.
Hey Ampar, that first link was the funniest thing I have read in years. There was this guy in the fourth section down on http://www.iwantapinkzune.com that reckoned the packaging (a pretty ordinary cardbard box) was the best packaging he had seen with anything he had bought lately. Apparently it was an experience in itself. Sad or what! Now unboxing an iPhone. That’s some pretty stylish packaging. I was highly impressed but I didn’t have an orgasm over it. Zune users have such low standards.
ROTFLMAO
The headline’s a lie. They’ll be sellin’ ’em for years online – until the clear out the stock.
I don’t understand! Why doesn’t it sell? It has an FM RADIO!
MW: M$ is losing “money” hand over fist.
“Zune users have such low standards.”
True. Here’s a couple of examples of members of the new Zune Social Dating Service:
The All-Mighty Ballmer even admitted that Microsoft has failed to figure out how to make money from the Zune.
MS doesn’t make money from the Zune, it makes “Zune points.” That was their downfall, trying to create their own currency. I have to wonder what idiot came up with that.
Poor ZuneTang™, all his Celine Dion songs will stop playing when MS pulls the plug.
” . . . all his Celine Dion songs will stop playing when MS pulls the plug.”
But alas, his poor heart will go on.
@Raquel Welch
Quote”Still, sales jumped 27% in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a gain analysts consider astonishing (BusinessWeek.com, 10/26/07) considering Microsoft’s size. ” source http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071113_342601.htm
140 million licenses for Vista. 20 million Xbox 360 sales( Actually a continuing profit item for Microsoft) 2 million sales on the Zune 6 months faster than Ipod. (you do know one can build and install games on Zunes now? Ive currently seen 20 built by the Social.)
Microsoft profit rises 23%, beating estimates source http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/124437.asp
futher in the numbers
The Entertainment and Devices Division, apparently benefitting from the “Halo 3” launch, turned an operating profit of $165 million, on sales of $1.9 billion. That compares with revenue of $1 billion and a loss of $142 million in the same quarter last year.
Microsoft also boosted its revenue guidance for the full fiscal year, saying it now expects revenue in the range of $58.8 billion to $59.7 billion — about $2 billion more than the previous forecast on both the high and low ends.
Remarkable for a company some say is dying on the vine dont you think?
Take a look at those last figures 58.8-59.7 billion in revenue.
Apples was $6.8 billion revenue. A very nice 36% rise in profits, with sales jumping 40%.
Now talk about the Apple/Microsoft connection. Office 2008 is flying off the shelves, “According to CNet Microsoft is selling copies of Office 2008 for Mac at a clip three times higher than the former 2004 version. “The company wouldn’t disclose sales numbers, but said the sales are the highest in the 19-year history of the unit. That continues a trend that has been going on for some time.” source http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1733
Not a bad way to take a big bite off the old Apple.
Microsoft is not going anywhere folks. The company so interwoven in todays society that to pull a plug and say now it is gone is not realistic. A decade is the best estimates before any one comapny can put together a viable alternative to that infrastructure that Windows, Server and Office now occupy.
Then it is quite possibel that it would take another 20 years to take any appreciable market share from them. Consider that they have nearly unlimited resources to combat any attempt at this. Note the numbers above.
Now Apple is rising fast, but the question is what is the realistic ceiling for them? They will plateau. Retail is only so big. Business is where the need to be to get them to the level of Microsoft. And really what business model do they have for that? Their current one is not open compatible enough to go after Microsoft.
Well just my thoughts.
Oh and on topic. A question. How many Ipods did Gamestop sell?
Look into it and let us know, be careful though you might be suprised.
If the business plan was read you might note that the line is at the mark they positioned for it by this time in its lifecycle.
Next up is Sandisk.
Microsoft to this date has never iterated that Zune would be a killer of Ipod. It will compete, gaining market share and be profitable.
i went from working at the apple store and personally selling at least
25 ipods daily, to working at office depot, and never seeing a zune go out the door in the past 4 months.
@Crash
GameStop does not and has never sold iPods. The only digital music player they sold was the Zune. Microsoft offered them special XBox 360 and XBox 360 game priority and allocations in return for selling the Zune in their stores. The MS thought and convinced GameStop that XBox 360 customers/fanboys would plot down extra cash when buying the Xbox or Games for a Zune too.
What happened was Zune sales never panned out at GameStop despite that fact that the Zune was the only digital music player they sold. With no competition in the stores for sales, being surrounded by MS Xbox fans and it still the Zune could not become a successful product even a store level were the Zune had no other competitor the store’s customers were in large part MS fanboys.
While MS is not likely to close it’s doors over the failure of a product like the Zune, which on launch day Ballmer called it “an iPod Killer”, as the Zune contained an FM radio and the social ability to squirt songs from on Zune to another for a limited number of days or pays. The Squirted tune was wrapped in another layer of DRM, and would wrap un-DRM’d tracks in DRM to limit the receiving Zune’s rights to play, copy, and re-squirt the tune.
MS Points = screwing the customer. Points to Microsoft for sheer graft for the attempt to hide the true cost of the Zune market place. They thought if they hid the cost it would mean people would spend more money. The points concept had started working with the XBox Market place were the concept does work, user’s spend more money. MS Saves on CC processing fees and Sale Tax collection issues are evaded.
Creative, iRiver and Sandisk were Microsoft Partners in licensing and supporting the MS “Plays for Sure” DRM scheme. With the Zune MS created a new DRM exclusive to the Zune. The Zune is never going to impact iPod sales, in fact the only sales the Zune has so far impacted is it’s “Plays for Sure” partners, Mostly Creative Zen sales. Sandisk and iRiver are advancing their products specs and through aggressive pricing keeping Zune sales in check so far. Sandisk and iRiver sales are in fact outpacing Zune sales, but, it’s Apple that keeps gaining market-share in the digital media device space. Apples done this by attracting new consumers to the digital media device space, something Creative, Sandisk, iRiver and Microsoft has not been able to do, Apple is also picking up the move up buyers, customer that entered the market through the low-end no name/or off-brand device only to be frustrated or unhappy with the device but, found it was usefully, Again this is a segment of the market that only Apple is targeting.
Cell Phone makers watched what MS did to it’s Zune Partners after a promise of not competing with them and making assurances that “Plays for Sure” was their interest in the digital media market, they screwed their partners with the Zune. Windows Mobile is the cell phone industries “Plays for Sure”. While Ballmer said he’d rather his OS be on 95% of the cell phones then selling a phone. But, the only way Windows Mobile will every be able to compete with Android and the iPhone is if MS gets into the Cell Phone business competing against it’s own Windows Mobile Partners.
While the Big Wigs at MS are more focused on competing with Google for online adverting dollars the let time they spend monitoring Microsoft’s core market, the market they have in autopilot, you know the one that provides the company with the funds to flush in supporting the losses from the Xbox hardware, Xbox online services, Zune device, and the Zune on-line stuff. (Xbox, Zune, and Windows Mobile ads are coming soon to bolster MS product dogs.) How much cash is Microsoft willing to piss-off in hopes of buying a 5% chance that the investment will yield any type of competitor to Google?
Slapping ads on your Xbox, Zune, and Windows Mobile devices without price reductions to compensate you for the ads would be a perfectly great addition to all Microsoft’s products?
Vista is the perfect example of the lack of focus at Microsoft these days. Unless the big wigs start getting some focus back on where their cash cow is going they could start to see the cow dry up.
@Demon
Well this is rather funny here “Cell Phone makers watched what MS did to it’s Zune Partners after a promise of not competing with them and making assurances that “Plays for Sure” was their interest in the digital media market, they screwed their partners with the Zune. Windows Mobile is the cell phone industries “Plays for Sure”. While Ballmer said he’d rather his OS be on 95% of the cell phones then selling a phone. But, the only way Windows Mobile will every be able to compete with Android and the iPhone is if MS gets into the Cell Phone business competing against it’s own Windows Mobile Partners.
Just today was released that Microsoft Mobil had a 50 +% increase from year to year for 2007-2008 Expecting 20-22 million Smartphones. With futher increases for the next 3-4 years of equal or greater. Now if I have these figures right Iphone may hit 10 million by the end of year. that is 18 mos of sales to hit 10 million where as Mobile hit 14 million in the last fiscal year alone 2006-2007.
Now the Balmer quote of Ipod killer is not to be found, nor is there any mention of this by a Microsoft employee that Ive seen, please provide link.
Now the Zune is not finished, as I stated earlier, just getting its legs under it. 2 million sixth months faster that Ipod is not bad in a mature market, saturated with Ipods.
By Most reviews the 80 exeeds the capacity and quality of the Classic by Ipod, and the 4-8 gb are just getting some following.
As I mentioned before the social side is taking off nicely. Games are being generated. There is a community at Zune boards that post for viewing and download,right to your Zune You Tube like content. And your reference to the Microsoft points ripping off customers, Most responses I see is favorable to the subscription anyway, ver few buy the per song stuff. So I dont see the point system as a realiable measure for the succes of Zune Pass.
I keep noting at the loacal BB and Wally the shelves are emptying faster than the Ipod stock.
Vista is actually moving better at this point in its cycle than XP. And I remeber the huge community howling by most Apple enthusuasts calling for Microsofts head on the XP virus issues. And yet to my knowlege I have not heard of a whisper of virus issues with Vista. The Driver issues where a thorn for some, for a short while, howver that is resolved. I have dual boot on XP and Vista, and cannot come up with the speed problems folks complain about. Vista is factually faster in most areas for me. Gaming being slightly improved in XP