“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?
“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