“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?
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