“In late September of this year, Microsoft launched the latest version of its Zune HD media player. Rather than simply upgrade and refine the original Zune concept, Microsoft seemingly followed the lead of the iPod Touch, building the device around a 3.3-inch touchscreen and adding Internet browsing capability and games/application downloads via the Zune Marketplace. Apple made a series of announcements in the week prior to the Zune’s launch, including improvements to iTunes, the iPod touch and iPod nano, providing an opportunity to compare consumer interest in the two media player brands,” Conrad Beickler reports for Compete.
“Had the Zune gained any traction against the iPod or had Apple’s announcements of the prior week tempered enthusiasm for the Zune HD launch? To further explore this I looked at Compete’s data to see how interest shown by online consumers during the Zune HD’s launch week compared to that of the iPod nano and iPod touch in the weeks surrounding their recent upgrades,” Beickler reports.
• The addition of a video camera to the iPod nano resulted in a 700% week over week lift in traffic to Nano-specific pages at apple.com during launch week.
• Traffic to Zune.net, on the other hand, only saw a comparatively modest 90% week to week increase when the Zune HD launched.
• What’s far more damaging to the Zune HD’s prospects is that the iPod touch, which hasn’t changed drastically since its redesign in September 2008, drew virtually identical levels of interest from online consumers as the entire Zune.net site during the first two weeks immediately following the Zune HD launch.
Full article, with a chart of weekly interest in portable media players (Aug. 23 – Sep.20, 2009) that bodes very poorly for Microsoft, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]
There’s a die hard Zune guy at work. He talked his brother into getting a Zune HD. I haven’t heard anything from him about is since (no bragging, no good words about it). I think that is even worse for the Zune brand. No word of mouth.
You should get a picture of the guy with his zune, could be a collector item sune
While I do think the Zune HD’s interface is very nice, it isn’t optimized for many applications (not that it will get them!). The simple white text with no capital letters on a black background would make finding 1 application out of 144 impossible.
On top of everything, it’s made my Microsoft.
Believe it or not, I have actually seen 3 Zunes in the wild.
And, yes, I have called Guinness Book of World Records.
Of the top 25 “MP3 players” sold on Amazon, 18 are iPods. Zune shows up #13. After a month, that’s pretty sad for Zune.
@Cubert
LOL!
I can just see the design review mtg for the zune HD in my head…
Ballmer sits in and pipes up…
Hey guys I hear this Internet thing uses a lot of tiny (ie lowercase) text and avoids those big letters you tend to see at the start of a sentence. I think all the text on the zune should be those tiny letters. That would be so hip!!!
@ LeftCoastDude
That Zune is beat by iPod is really bad in that Amazon treats each different SKU (model, capacity, color, etc.) as a completely different item.
It sucks to be Microsoft.
Zune what?
isn’t that the failed music device Microsoft made in brown like 3 years ago?
thats all I know about it
maybe if they spent some of the money they DONT HAVE on advertising it would help the economy.. it definatly wont sell any more zunes, but they should still do their part to stimulate these hard times.
Silly, gullible MAC sheep. You can do anything with statistics.
The Zune HD phenomenon that is revolutionizing portable media players is only beginning. This holiday season’s hottest gadget? Zune HD. Why? Discerning tech enthusiasts don’t want to wade through MAC’s confusing lineup of I-Pod also-rans. They’ll go straight for Zune. Don’t be left out of the social, MAC fangirls. I invite the one or two reasonable MAC cultists to trade in their hard to configure, impossible to synchronize only-useful-as-a-paperweight I-Pod and stupid white earbuds for a Zunetacular experience. In HD.
Your potential. Our passion.™
I’ve been reading ZuneTang’s commentary for over a year. Has anyone figured out if he’s deluded, or has he got the most sarcastic comedy shtick ever? His comments are so over-the-top, I can’t be sure.
as will ANYTHING Apple does after Windows 7 is released.
Silly, gullible WINDOWS sheep. You can do anything with statistics.
The iPod nano phenomenon that is revolutionizing portable media players is only beginning. This holiday season’s hottest gadget? iPod nano. Why? Discerning tech enthusiasts don’t want to wade through Microsphicter’s confusing lineup of Zune also-rans. They’ll go straight for iPod nano. Don’t be left out of the social, Microsphicter’s fangirls. I invite the one or two reasonable Microsphicter cultists to trade in their hard to configure, impossible to synchronize only-useful-as-a-paperweight I-Zune and stupid white earbuds for a iPod nanotacular experience. Indeed.
It kills me how blind Zune Tang and other microsoft followers are. They’re clinging desparately to a burning ship wreckage while other PC users are climbing into the nearest raft and making their way to the safety of Mac.
Just let them go down with the ship…
Zune Tang has his/her tongue firmly planted in her/his cheek.
Zune Tang: My favorite thing Tang does is continuously use MAC instead of Mac. It’s unbelievable how otherwise tech savvy people are simply unable to differentiate between Apple the company and Macintosh the product as they speak. I don’t mean that they don’t know the difference, just that it shows an incomplete understanding. Same thing with using MAC; as in most Windows users wouldn’t know the difference between Mac and MAC.
I have a friend who knows absolutely everything about Windows. But put him in front of a Mac and he is at a complete loss. That’s because he doesn’t thoroughly understand computers. He only knows Windows. He knows lots of other stuff too he’s not dumb, he just didn’t get into computers until Windows 95.
On the other hand, every Mac user I know either owns or uses a Windows PC everyday. So they are able to at least do the basics on either OS. Linux: super geeks only. I admire them. Just don’t want to go there.
@Tang ZuneWiper®
You are the latest in a long line of newbies that has been snagged by ZuneTang….
It’s satire. He’s not real. Think of him as the phantom of the opera, the mad hatter, the aliens that landed at roswell, and the gunman on the grassy knoll all wrapped into one.
Dear Mr. ZuneTang,
Your blind devotion to Microsoft is not appreciated here. Please stop wasting your time trying to convince us that these inferior products from Redmond are worth our consideration. I find your postings here a waste of time and don’t understand why you continue to post. Please take it to a Microsoft fan site, you’re not welcome here!
Please stop harassing mr. ZuneTang. He’s here for our entertainment…
Thank you
@Bart;
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+1
Keep on going ZuneTang, you legend
@ WhatIsSarcasm?
Try this: hilight the word “irony.” That’s right. Good. Now, <ctrl>-<click> or <right>-<click> depending on your mouse settings. Excellent. Oops. No do it again, but slide the cursor down this time to “Look Up in Dictionary” and <click> — there you go. Stay with the first definition.
Some people don’t get The Onion either.
This is such a bad analysis, I can’t believe it s even “news”. Of course there was more interest on the Internet sites for the Apple iPod range, since it is available for purchase by about four billion potential customers, while the market for Zune devices is less than 400 million ( which for those that can’t do math is a market just 0.1% the size of the iPod market).
You would therefore expect the Zune website to have traffic of on tenth of one percent of the traffic on the iPod sites…
@ Hm
Ha! Such a convoluted way of looking up words. Here’s how I do it: hold the pointer over the interesting word, press Ctrl, Cmd and D.
MW: paid, as in “Jobs evangelist, un-“
I own a Zune HD and a Ipod Touch. I would rather use the Zune. It is not a bad device at all, but I don’t need to sing all of its praises, because I have a life and I am not a sales person…