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iPod Zune sales -- hit or flop?

The only thing people seem to love about the Zune is the interface. In many ways, it's better graphically than the iPod, but as I was thinking Apple should do the same, I realized fancy graphics are really a step backwards in usability.

For instance, when I'm jogging, I could care less for fancy graphics and such. I just need to quickly navigate my songs without a lot of the visual clutter getting in the way. The novelty of such really wears off pretty quickly.
 
spicyapple said:
The only thing people seem to love about the Zune is the interface. In many ways, it's better graphically than the iPod, but as I was thinking Apple should do the same, I realized fancy graphics are really a step backwards in usability.

For instance, when I'm jogging, I could care less for fancy graphics and such. I just need to quickly navigate my songs without a lot of the visual clutter getting in the way. The novelty of such really wears off pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Yep, fancy graphics definitely get in the way -- but it's the kind of thing that automatically attracts people when they're looking at it in the store, they just don't consider the usability of it. If Apple wanted to, they could do the same -- and probaboy blow M$ away, graphically. But who really needs that? Digital music players are in people's pockets or hidden 99% of the time anyway. Or if they're playing video, they're taking up the screen with something else.
 
I tried a Zune at Target a few hours ago. It wasn't particularly easy to use but it wasn't particularly difficult. It wasn't as though the control system had been clearly designed for people. It seemed to be designed for the developer's ease of use.

The video that was playing was reasonably clear and displayed no glitches. The display is too small for much but having no way to adjust the marketing display and having the video in landscape mode while the controls operated in portrait mode was not thoughtful.

I have no idea whether there was a volume control but I couldn't find anything on the front panel and just pressing buttons didn't do a whole lot. If I want something a bit more crude than the iPod that plays video, I'd go for one of the Archos players.
 
Zune Sales Figures From Amazon

Just thought I'd post an update on Amazon Zune Sales:
Black Zune: 26th In Electronics
Brown Zune: 110th In Electronics
White Zune: 225th In Electronics
This has gone down from about 16th, 60th and 125th respectively late Yesterday. I think that it is fair to say the Zune hasn't kicked off that well.
 
shunpike said:
Just thought I'd post an update on Amazon Zune Sales:
Black Zune: 26th In Electronics
Brown Zune: 110th In Electronics
White Zune: 225th In Electronics
This has gone down from about 16th, 60th and 125th respectively late Yesterday. I think that it is fair to say the Zune hasn't kicked off that well.
Click to expand...

I think the real question is where the Zune will go from here; I wasn't interested in (or heard much about) the iPod before it reached 3G, and probably would not have bought the original models. The problem for Zune is that they're competing (at least in theory) against the market leader, which has a huge advantage in design and portability. And although MS could be patient and slowly work out the kinks, there's a mountain of bad press building that's really hard to undo in the minds of consumers. MS should have been more aggressive in their strategy by releasing a smaller flash-based player first, while still keeping Plays for Sure compatibility: gobble up all the little markets, and then chip away at the leader.
 
Even so the point i was making is that sales have FALLEN from what on all accounts was a 'good but not great' first 2-3 days - so they must now be pretty bad - they are competing against the Ipod which controls 1st, 3rd, 5th and 6th on the top 10 Electronic Spots On Amazon. (Although the Zune Black is beating the 2nd Gen Shuffle) Even so it has fallen down a place, the Brown is higher up, as is the White. However only Black is in the top 100 - this says something about sales doesn't it?
 
Zune-another pitiful Microsoft attempt to copy Apple

Msft is a company in serious decline-absolutely devoid of anything
original or unique. It amazes me that people continue to use this
companies products at all. They are horrible both in quality and/or
ease of use.

Dell is just now entering this phase. I'll never forget back in the 90's
when Michael Dell was asked what Apple should do and he said,
"Liquidate the company and give the shareholders back their money."

Now Apple's market cap exceeds that of Dell. Maybe Dell and Gates should take that advice now. They are done.
 
skye12 said:
Msft is a company in serious decline-absolutely devoid of anything
original or unique. It amazes me that people continue to use this
companies products at all. They are horrible both in quality and/or
ease of use.

Dell is just now entering this phase. I'll never forget back in the 90's
when Michael Dell was asked what Apple should do and he said,
"Liquidate the company and give the shareholders back their money."

Now Apple's market cap exceeds that of Dell. Maybe Dell and Gates should take that advice now. They are done.
Click to expand...

well, when 99% of the computer in the world is using "M$ windows", what's your proposal of ditching it?
I don't like M$, but their products isn't "horrible both in quality and/or
ease of use."

About Dell, and "they are done", I think Jobs must treat his opponent more carefully than you do, its difficult business, pride, but not arrogant.
 
shunpike said:
[snip] Although the Zune Black is beating the 2nd Gen Shuffle...[/snip]
Click to expand...
You do realize that Amazon doesn't actually carry the shuffle, yet. It's being sold by another merchant, BlueProton. Considering that, it's amazing that it's in 25th place overall.

Analysts are expecting 6-8 million in Shuffles sales alone. It's first on the Apple Store top sellers list.
 
dongmin said:
You do realize that Amazon doesn't actually carry the shuffle, yet. It's being sold by another merchant, BlueProton. Considering that, it's amazing that it's in 25th place overall.

Analysts are expecting 6-8 million in Shuffles sales alone. It's first on the Apple Store top sellers list.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying that - if this is true this means that all zunes are being beaten by a product Amazon doesn't stock? lol
 
Apple vs Dell market cap

As of the market close 11/17/06, apples mkt cap=$73.33 billion
while msft mkt cap=$56.84 billion. Source Yahoo finance. Maybe
Apple should buy em out lol.

mkt cap is the number of outstanding shs times the price.

The gap has grown as Dell stock drops to new lows with
the SEC investigations whereas Apples stock is close to all
time highs.

The quote I mentioned earlier was widely reported as Apple
passed dell earlier this year.
 
I'll give you my opinion I had a zune for a week.

First I'll tell you I don't presently have an Ipod but I had a 5G, sold it for the Zen M. I would'nt mind getting a 5.5g now that they've improved the screen. The Zune was an OK player but it had faults. First no Customizable EQ, same Issue the Ipod's have had. The Zen's Customizable EQ goes along way in Sound Quality. The Zune's preset never had one that sounded best, but the overall sound was comparable to the Ipod. However mine made audible clicks and pops between tracks, it was not silent, I have seen some people remark thiers did as well so it might be inherent thru the device. The Interface was pretty, but did require alot of back presses to move around. And I agree with the posters above, how often will you be staring at Artwork. The Video feature is where the zune falls down. It only supports .wmv. The Software will convert (after a long process) .mp4 and H264, but it only natively plays .wmv. And it's .wmv in very strict criteria. 320x240 only with bitrate restrictions, wma audio track. Vary from those restrictions and the file has to convert. >WMV files take along time to encode, and there's only a few encoders that the machine played the vids from without encoding, namely WME9 , and Winavi. One thing the Ipod and Zen have going for it is a dearth of good encoders. The Thing I miss about not having an Ipod is Itunes Intergration, I simply liked Itunes better than anything I've used, I still use Itunes on my Mini, but the problem I had is I saved in Lossless format, but I want to save in a lossy format on the Itunes and there was simply no way to do this.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
P.S. For $150, or even $200, the Zune looks promising. I would consider it, once they iron out the bugs.
Click to expand...

But it's not $150. Or even $200. So what's the point? Might as well say you'd buy a zune if it came with a free car or something.

I saw a display in a store, one unit had a dead battery (even though it seemed to be plugged into the cord) and the other one seemed to be a dummy model that didn't even work. Both were in giant plastic shells that made it impossible to even tell how big they are.
 
I am going to guess the first gen zune is going to crash and burn :p

When people decide to buy an mp3 player, most either ask "which iPod" or ask for something other then an ipod (don't know why though) and then get directed to sandisk players and the like. "Zune? What's that?"

I personally would never buy a zune because it lacks everything the ipod/itunes has. Sorry but I don't need a graphic interface to play music :rolleyes:

And if I can't use it as an external HD, then it's pretty much useless.

Wi-Fi sharing? Give me a break. I swear their marketing people just come up with crap to add to their junk software/hardware just to make the "what's included" list of "features".

BTW: Let's not criticize microshaft for not supporting macs. Remember --> The First Gen. Ipods never supported the pc world until hell DID freeze over. Of course, that brought the attention to the ignorant pc world that there WAS a real alternative to windoze$ and bill gate$.

I am still waiting to see pics of the blue screen of death on one of those zune toys though.
 
Digitaljim said:
Zune review: http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/147048,CST-FIN-Andy23.article

"a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity"
Click to expand...

the author sounds pretty biased, and according to him, seems he is recommending Gigabeat.
Im not sure if he is being objective.
But, I do agree the M$'s Zune seems trying to limit user in many ways, altho not as "extreme" as the author described.
wait and see.

ps, according to this FAQ, many issue in that review are false:
http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=709.0
 
clevin said:
the author sounds pretty biased, and according to him, seems he is recommending Gigabeat.
Im not sure if he is being objective.
But, I do agree the M$'s Zune seems trying to limit user in many ways, altho not as "extreme" as the author described.
wait and see.
Click to expand...

For sure; the author seems almost irrationally anti-microsoft. But he makes some good points, and it's interesting to see the non-iPod crowd - who are arguably going to be hit hardest by the Zune's (possible) success - having their own little biased rants against it.

I'm actually quite interested in Zune. The wi-fi could be quite a good feature when it's fully functional (ie cracked) and the GUI does look nicer than the iPod's. I'm probably quite a good represenative of the Microsoft's potential market too: young, male, tech-savvy, bit of cash.

HOWEVER, there's a few major reasons they'd never convert this vague interest into a bonafide sale:

1. I already own an iPod - as do 80% of my friends quite happily. Why trade?

2. Save for the GUI, it's really quite ugly.

3. Although I own a Windows laptop for work, I use my Mac for 'fun' - again, as do many of my peers.

4. I'm in the UK, so it's not actually available to me yet.
 
Digitaljim said:
1. I already own an iPod - as do 80% of my friends quite happily. Why trade?

2. Save for the GUI, it's really quite ugly.

3. Although I own a Windows laptop for work, I use my Mac for 'fun' - again, as do many of my peers.

4. I'm in the UK, so it's not actually available to me yet.
Click to expand...
thats it, LOL
I went to bestbuy today, and to be honest, Zune looks much better than other stuff like Sandisk or Zen.
 
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