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iPod Zune sales -- hit or flop?

Rojo

Rojo

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 26, 2006
1,328
241
Barcelona
Ok, I have to admit, I'm curious about the Zune.

No, not the actual player -- it looks/sounds truly terrible, and I can't understand why anyone would pick it over an iPod. And even if I wanted it, I'm a Mac guy -- so it's useless to me.

But I AM curious whether people will actually buy this thing, and why.
Do we have any idea of how well it's sold so far? Or does that kind of information take a while to reach the public? Is there anyone here who works at a store that's selling the Zune that can give us an idea of how well it's selling?

I'm not really worried about it taking over sales of the iPod or anything. I can't see how it would, but even if it did, I'm not the kind of person who really cares about that kind of thing anyway. I use OS X when most of the world is on Windows, and I'm fine with that -- all I care about is the better product being available. If anything, if Zune sales are outrageous, it will just force Apple to make even better iPods -- and everyone wins.

No, the reason I want to know about Zune sales is more out of curiousity of human behavior. Will people fall for the Zune's gimmicks (ineffective wifi, customizable backgrounds for a device that's in your pocket 99% of the time, etc.). Or will people buy it for the MicroSoft name? Will there be Apple haters who buy it simply because it's NOT an iPod, and because no one else has it? Or will buyers stay away in droves, due to the bad press it's been getting and the incompatibility with Vista?

Either way, I'm REALLY curious....!! :D
 
All I know is that I haven't seen one person even looking at the display at the Target I work at. I think it'll flop personally. Everyone is used to the click wheel and the Zune's looks like it but doesn't operate the same.
 
It bombing. I was the only person at Best Buy who poked my fingers at the model displays. There was a full shelf of those in the bottom glass cases. Not empty of Zzzzzunes.
 
No one's even asked about it at RadioShack where I work. There's two of us that are big Mac guys anyways, and the others we've mostly convinced that the iPods are by far the best, so it's unlikely we'll convince anyone to go for it. Add that to the fact that we don't have them in stock, and you have a recipe for a total flop as far as our store in concerned.

Yes, I'm happy about it.

jW
 
I reckon if MS subsidised the price on these things (XBOX style) to, say, $150 they'd fly off the shelves. It's not over yet.
 
It took a long time for the iPod to really become a staple in the US; I remember that I found out about it through a friend who had one (when the scroll wheel and key buttons were still seperate), and thought it was the coolest thing ever. About 6 months after I got one, I really started seeing the earbuds all over campus. The only way Zune can be successful is if it offers a real experience that many people will want. Other people have said it on the site before, and I agree; when I listen to music, it's usually to tune others out, not to share it. The wi-fi is the only 'unique' feature, and it's not a strong selling point. Therefore, Zune doesn't go anywhere (and most people equate te brand Microsoft with work, not so much leisure and fun).

In regards to your remark about Apple haters, I think the market is starting to change. Although we still have the die-hards (and there are a lot in each camp) who will defend the product and platform to the death, the more moderate crowd may be swayed over. Case in point: my sister's fiance said just one year ago that he'd never be won over to an Apple computer. Now, he said he's been looking longingly at the iMacs whenever he goes to the Michigan Ave store in Chicago; the features, ease of use, and form are all very compelling.
 
emotion said:
I reckon if MS subsidised the price on these things (XBOX style) to, say, $150 they'd fly off the shelves. It's not over yet.
Click to expand...

It's possible -- but hasn't it been said that M$ is already going to be losing money on the Zune hardware? I'd be shocked to see them be willing to lose even MORE money by lowering the price. Then again, they're spending billions already... why not?

I don't know about the XBox situation, but I feel like if they lowered the price so drastically it would just smack of desperation -- making anyone think it MUST be a crappy device, if they had to lower it so much to get anyone to buy it.

Call me crazy, but even if I had a PC for it to work on, and I was looking at a 30GB Zune for $150 or a 30GB iPod for $250, I think I'd STILL go for the iPod. At least I'd have a better-looking, more stable device, with more content to download from its store -- plus some guaranteed reliability that it's not going to go away any time soon. With the Zune, I don't really know if it's going to be around in a year or not, or if it will continue to get support. Everything about it just seems "iffy" to me....
 
netdog said:
Zune 1.0 = Flop
Zune 3.1 will crush all comers
Click to expand...

Except iPod 7 will be better but we'll start hitting an alternate system:

iPod 1.0 Excellent, nothing else like it
iPod 2.0 Ditto
iPod 3.0 Different design, some competition but nothing huge
iPod 4.0
iPod 4.5
iPod 5.0
iPod 5.5
Zune 1.0 - Flop​
Zune 2.0 - Not as big a flop​
Zune 3.1 - excellent​
Zune 3.11 for Workgroups - rare​
iPod 6.0 - more of the same
Zune 95 - massive rip off of iPod 6.0 but nobody cares, iPod starts to lose ground​
iPod 7 - better than Zune 95 but nobody cares
Zune 98 - better than Zune 95​
iPod 8
Zune 2000 - the best Zune ever​
iPod 9 - still good, but getting smashed by Zune
Zune ME - horrible​
iPod X and Zune XP - iPod's new design destroys Zune XP which languishes for years.
iPod X.1
iPod X.2
iPod X.3 - iPod regains ascendency
iPod X.4
iPod X.5 and Zune Vista - Zune Vista the same as Zune XP but with translucent shell. iPod X.5 puts Zune Vista on the mat in one punch.
 
um.. I think you've confused the iPod and Zune with something else in that last post Chundles...

P.S. For $150, or even $200, the Zune looks promising. I would consider it, once they iron out the bugs.
 
A guy over at the inforworld site referred to it as the "Microsoft Bob" of the MP3 world.

If that's not a knock out punch, I don't know what is!
 
pilotError said:
A guy over at the inforworld site referred to it as the "Microsoft Bob" of the MP3 world.

If that's not a knock out punch, I don't know what is!
Click to expand...

Having ALWAYS been on a Mac, I just looked up "Microsoft Bob" on wikipedia, and.... wow. Just wow. What were they thinking?!? :rolleyes:
 
Rojo said:
But I AM curious whether people will actually buy this thing, and why.
Do we have any idea of how well it's sold so far? Or does that kind of information take a while to reach the public? Is there anyone here who works at a store that's selling the Zune that can give us an idea of how well it's selling?
Click to expand...

Apple usually gets word out of its successes after about a week, so probably a bit early to have any real numbers. If its a failure we won't hear details until the next quarterly report from MS - and only then probably in response to a question from an investor.

But as netdog pointed out so simply Zune 1.0 is expected to be a failure. Even statements by microsoft during this past few days have said as much. MS is taking the XBox/Windows approach to this threat. They faced a highly competitive market with a strong market leader. They got a simple product to market in year one and used it as a test bed to develop their "real" product in version 2. They highly subsidize the project to artificially reduce the price to competitive levels and hope that they will be able to over the course of many years starve off competition, at which point they kill r&d, drive up costs, and rake in the profits.
 
Cannot tell yet, wait until Jan. 1st to make the judgement.

Sales may pick up for Christmas, but I cannot see as many parents knowing about it as the stuff that is already in their heads.

Either see them picking up a cheap ass unit or an iPod for the ungrateful little bastards.
 
I wouldn't buy a Zune because it apparently has Rootkit in the firmware and it doesn't work on a Mac or Linux system.

Plus the M$ is a big turn off factor.......
 
emotion said:
I reckon if MS subsidised the price on these things (XBOX style) to, say, $150 they'd fly off the shelves. It's not over yet.
Click to expand...
Considering that it's already subsidized, that's unlikely.

Lowering the price of the Zune much more could be considered dumping, and considering that M$ is already in trouble for anti-competitive behavior, I doubt if will take such a substantial risk on being stung again...
 
Seeing how my Dad, who does not keep up with technology, knew about the iPod when it was first released and has never heard of the Zune shows how MS has already failed. Apple networked and advertised the iPod correctly so that when it was released people knew about it. The Zune is going no where fast because no one is talking about it.
 
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