Zune sells well in its debut, but not as well as the iPod

Published on November 30th, 2006

Considering the promotional hype and heavy marketing that went into this launch, I’d have been surprised if the Zune hadn’t sold relatively well. I still maintain that it will never beat out the iPod in its current iteration.

Microsoft Corp.’s Zune music player claimed a No. 2 spot among portable media devices in its first week on the U.S. retail market, according to preliminary data released Wednesday.

Market research firm NPD Group said sales of the Microsoft player edged out devices from previous second-place holder SanDisk Corp. in the week ended Nov. 18. But Zune was a distant second to Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod, and its second-place showing came amid widespread media attention and launch hype.

NPD said Zune won 9 percent of the U.S. market, measured by unit sales, and 13 percent of dollar volume in its first week in stores. Microsoft released the device Nov. 14.

In the same week, the iPod represented 63 percent of unit sales and 72.5 percent of dollar volume, the research firm said.

Having said that, if Microsoft gets their act together on the Zune it may capture as much as a third of the market eventually.

23 users responded in " Zune sells well in its debut, but not as well as the iPod "

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# 1 Billabong said, on November 30th, 2006 at 10:02 am

M$ has enough cash to make this thing right but according to our founding father it sucks.Give it 3 years and it will be breakeven.Not exactly the magic touch but close enough for grenades and a cash heavy monopoly.

# 2 Leu said, on November 30th, 2006 at 10:07 am

I suppose it could be #1, but that Microsoft rule of threes is so ingrained in everyone’s conscience that only the early adopters are going after it.

# 3 Mark Derail said, on November 30th, 2006 at 10:10 am

What’s BG doing in that picture? He had nothing do to with the Zune. Use the other CEO, the one responsible for the declining stock value.

# 4 Olo Baggins of Bywater said, on November 30th, 2006 at 10:44 am

When Microsoft makes the Zune a required accessory for Vista activation they’ll sell tons of them.

# 5 The Other Tom said, on November 30th, 2006 at 10:55 am

The Zune will never be #1. It is way too crippled in the new features that it does provide, and the rest is same-ol’-same-ol’.

And these numbers are very skewed. A LOT more iPods were sold than are reported here. This so-called “Market research” DOES NOT INCLUDE APPLE STORES.

My completely unscientific guesstimate: iPods were at least 80% of the total actually sold, if not more.

# 6 bill said, on November 30th, 2006 at 11:18 am

I want my widescreen iPod. (give it to me or I’ll buy a Zune!)

Question, can I use a Zume with iTunes? or run Linux on it?
8^)

Or sync it with the 10,000 songs/movies/video’s that I have on my MAC?

# 7 mrsDvorak said, on November 30th, 2006 at 11:37 am

shut up you iFanboy, mac troll. your cover is blown. why are you even writing about microsoft, dnovak?

# 8 gquaglia said, on November 30th, 2006 at 11:48 am

#6 thats the problem with Zune as well as most M$ products, they only work with Windows. Those of us who have not drank the M$ koolaid would never limit ourselves to such restrictions.

# 9 V said, on November 30th, 2006 at 12:12 pm

I agree. I use WMP11 for my media, so any device I’d even CONSIDER buying MUST work with it. Most people are iTunes, but those that don’t are spread across WMP Winamp and lot’s of odds and ends. If you can’t sell these people a player without requiring them to relocate their music libraries, some of which may need to be converted since Zune only supports WMA, MP3, and AAC. Details like that aside… it’s a really nice look and feel.

# 10 Paul said, on November 30th, 2006 at 12:39 pm

If they’d strip the DRM-adding feature to the wi-fi sharing they would sell twice as many units. The Zune has the makings of a great device, but right now it’s simply crippled.

# 11 5centcigar said, on November 30th, 2006 at 1:10 pm

Why does the Creative Zen M always get left out of the discussion? It is really quite nice.

# 12 Dallas said, on November 30th, 2006 at 1:33 pm

A few ways to improve Zune sales..
- Bundle Zunes with Vista or Xbox.
- Preload with soft porn (huge sales)
- Preload with kiddie porn (huge GOP sales)
- Paint it white and sell it to North Korea as an iPOD knockoff

# 13 Mark said, on November 30th, 2006 at 1:45 pm

8. You might want to reread your post to see how ridiculous it sounds, unless, of course, it was a joke.

# 14 Peter iNova said, on November 30th, 2006 at 3:32 pm

Well son, you said you wanted a music machine you could call your own so your mother and I saved this Christmas present for last.

Wow. It feels … solid!

(sound of wrapping paper being shredded)

Oh, it’s a … a Zune. Um, thanks a lot. Say dad, did you keep the receipt?

# 15 me said, on November 30th, 2006 at 5:02 pm

I think the moment they get a song (even with the stupid 3 play limit) from someone else the Cool factor will get any kid excited.

Now if they would remove that limit for songs not flagged as copyrighted, then someone could just tag all their MP3s as not being copyrighted.

If you buy a DRMd song, the limits make sense.

# 16 doug said, on November 30th, 2006 at 6:02 pm

1. uncripple wiFi sharing for users’ own non-DRMed music
2. enable the music store to sell directly to the player at hotspots
3. come up with an IPTV player and enable it to work with a slingbox. both, of course, with TiVo-like timeshifting.

and I am so there.

# 17 doug said, on November 30th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

oh, hey – if M$ wants to shaft the Slingbox, have a USB2.0 vidcap device for the XBox 360 and turn it into a Slingbox.

# 18 Robert said, on November 30th, 2006 at 7:02 pm

I think the “rental” model that Zune marketplace has will eventually win out. It’s a way to have access to a HUGE library at a fair price.

Angry Frozen Head…has a good video by Reuven Avram on why he swtiched to Zune.

# 19 Lauren the Ghoti said, on December 1st, 2006 at 1:15 am

What a POS. At the rate it started out, it’s all downhill from here. It’s highly unlikely to even make it to version 3.0, at which point it would have ‘developed’ into merely a sad iPod wannabe. The parallels with Win v. Mac OS are instructive.

Watch it. By this time next year, it will have disappeared without a trace, down the Micro$oft Memory Hole, to join the countless other MS blunders, bombs and amateurish half-ass clones of other peoples’ products.

If those clowns spent a fraction of what they spend on lawyers on getting some R&D talent (and creative programmers instead of hacks), they could maybe, someday, conceivably come up with a original product that actually does something properly. But since dreck continues to bring in the bucks, and sheep continue to be born, there’s no need for them to change a thing…

So Sneereth The Ghoti

# 20 Luís Camacho said, on December 1st, 2006 at 2:16 am

@11 “Why does the Creative Zen M always get left out of the discussion? It is really quite nice.”

Good question, I don’t even know why are these guys discussing this, IMHO it’s irrelevant. Asides iPod there’s a bunch of other top brands players like Creative, there’s also middle sized brands of players, there’s small/local brands of players and there’s chinese/HK companies players.
There must be like around dozens if not hundreds of diferent brands and models of Mp3 players, what does it matter adding more 1 to this market? It’s just another 1 in 100, how really cares? Is all this fuss simply because the player is Microsoft branded? That’s silly let me tell you.

# 21 The other Tom said, on December 1st, 2006 at 4:26 am

10
The Zune DOES NOT have any DRM-adding features. You can only share the DRM-laden songs you download from the Zune Marketplace.

Plus, that could hardly be considered a “feature”.

# 22 Mike Voice said, on December 1st, 2006 at 7:29 am

Interesting that “Zune” vs “iPod” is discussed, when there is basically one size of Zune, but 3 different sizes of iPod.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

The only people Zune can attract are the ones interested in an “iPod”.

People interested in a Shuffle or Nano could give a fig about “Zune vs iPod”, since M$ has no product in that space.

# 23 Smartalix said, on December 1st, 2006 at 7:48 am

22,

Good point, Mike. The iPod shuffle is a great little device.

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