Opening Zune Sales Flaccid
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Nov 18, '06 01:35 PM
from the meager-beginnings dept.
from the meager-beginnings dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As 'Black Friday' approaches and consumers line up for the Playstation 3 it looks like Zune has become an afterthought. Despite months of hype, opening Zune sales are only so-so. While Zune did reach the top 10 on Amazon's Top 25 list for electronic product sales on its first day, it quickly fell below the top 15 and continues to drop. Six separate iPod models now outsell it as well as SanDisk's e250 player. In-store sales are not much better."
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Opening Zune Sales Flaccid
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Welcome to the social?
(Score:5, Funny)Re:Welcome to the social?
(Score:5, Insightful)Re:Welcome to the social?
(Score:5, Insightful)Re:Welcome to the social?
(Score:5, Informative)Sound wise they're both the same to me, I'm no audiophile and I don't think I need to be for this, it's an MP3 player that goes in my pocket. As an everyday user the software on the device is pretty much the same, I'm not going to quibble over the little things. A nice thing on the Sandisk is that a quick press of the power button takes you back to the first screen from where ever you are. The screen is bigger on the Sandisk compared to the nano we have (I don't know if they changed with the last revision). Also the Sandisk has the FM tuner which makes a huge difference down the gym when watch the TV's, the nano doesn't. The sizes are equivalent to me, I don't care about a few millimeters here or there and the Sandisk has an overall better solid feel as it's slightly heavier. However, the controls on the Sandisk are not as good as the nano, the nano definitely wins out there (except for the blue light), but I pick an album and put the thing in my pocket, so tactile control feel is not that important to me. Both require USB charging, unless you pay the cash for the external chargers. The biggest plus to the Sandisk is no software required. As long as I have the cable, in the mode I have it (no-DRM) it acts just like a USB drive with the computer.
All this is just my opinion, based on my preferences for using the two players. Other people will think differently, obviously. Oh, and I've not had any problems with lock-up on either.
Re:Welcome to the social?
(Score:4, Interesting)If you are Matt Jubelirer, product manager for the Zune project, you are probably Sleepless in Seattle right about now.
Re:Did you miss the title?
(Score:5, Funny)First pun!
(Score:5, Funny)Re:First pun!
(Score:4, Insightful)(Last Journal: Tuesday December 02, @07:03AM)
That may be, and I don't know much about MP3 players, but I do know that first impressions count. If this is their strategy, then bad move Microsoft.
Re:First pun!
(Score:5, Insightful)You're kidding, right?
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
Ring any bells?
Re:First pun!
(Score:5, Interesting)(http://bordom.net/)
Re:First pun!
(Score:5, Insightful)(Last Journal: Tuesday December 02, @07:03AM)
Why thank you.
To answer the post though, I was talking about the market's first impressions as opposed to mine or Taco's. Quite frankly if the market shared my first impressions, they would achieve the first ever recorded negative sales figures in history. However, the iPod actually did quite well to begin with. There was an initial lag period when it first came out during which it sold moderately well, but then after about eight months it began to rise hugely. Now this could sound reassuring to the Zune lovers (are there any outside Redmond?), but with the iPod, Apple were breaking fairly new ground. MP3 players weren't as prevalent as they are today and nothing quite like the then new iPod was. So that lag time is the technology gathering acceptance, filtering into public awareness, etc. That work is done now and . The Zune is treading old ground and ought to start off with an advantage because of that. But from this story it isn't exactly taking a big chunk of those who are buying their first MP3 player. Furthermore it's trying to break into a very established market whereas the iPod had territory which, if it was fooling around with boys, still had its virginity intact for a little longer. But Jobs has popped that particular cherry and is now in a pretty steady relationship. If the Zune were to steal the girl as it were, it would need to have done better than this.
It has the backing of Microsoft. It probably wont die. But it's not going to be anything amazing and the one good feature it has is crippled with DRM. Others will replicate it soon enough and hopefully in a better way. As phones, PDAs, MP3 players et al., become more and more integrated, there's not going to be a future for an MP3 player that boasts "Hey, I can do wireless."
IMHO, of course.
Re:First pun!
(Score:5, Funny)Re:First pun!
(Score:5, Insightful)(Last Journal: Sunday November 05, @06:31AM)
"Origami".
-jcr
Re:First pun!
(Score:5, Funny)there goes their chance to penetrate the market.
this product... not so much
(Score:5, Insightful)(Last Journal: Thursday July 12, @09:45AM)
I think (just my opinion) with all of the up-front hype and the resulting "flaccid" initial sales figures, Microsoft may have offered up a pretty big loser. Why? Because so much about the Zune and (some of) its features depend on the social network aspect to achieve functionality, and that won't happen with this slow of a ramp.
The flip side, also not good, is that with the slow uptake, the disappointing lack of ability to really use the wireless (because of a dearth of "others") will generate a viral, grassroots word of mouth ripple discourageing potential "others" to buy.
Now slap on the silly DRM, the incompatiblity with almost everything else, the silly purchase plan (float MS a loan anyone?), this product is going nowhere fast. In some ways, too bad, it actually looked to have a certain coolness, but Microsoft forgot and left too heavy a signature...
Maybe the good news out of all of this is the added prompting for makers like Apple to be more aggressive rolling out things like wireless, etc., though it looks to me like Apple has titrated their rollout almost perfectly.
Re:this product... not so much
(Score:5, Insightful)Listening to music can be social.
Jobs on Zune's sharing feature: Jobs gets this stuff. Think this through. Compare the Bill Gates solution (have people navigate through menus and beam music to other people's players across the room) with what Jobs is proposing. With what Jobs proposes:- You've creating physical intimacy through close physical proximity.
- You're listening to the same song at the same time. It's a shared experience. That isn't necessarily so with the Zune approach.
- You both have an ear free, so you can actually talk.
Now, there are comments in response to this Jobs quote all over the Internet to the effect of "I don't see the point, you can do the same thing with the Zune." I suspect astroturfing, because the point is obvious: this Zune feature, the only thing is has going for it, is a complicated technological solution to a problem that people have solved in better ways without the technology.Re:this product... not so much
(Score:5, Interesting)Re:That's what happens
(Score:5, Insightful)(http://www.lovewithoutalloy.com/)
They're just THAT huge.
Coming in at #83
(Score:5, Insightful)(http://www.boards.ie/ | Last Journal: Monday June 04, @03:39PM)
Fantastic work their Microsoft, beaten by even iPod cases and cheap ass dvd players
Re:Coming in at #83
(Score:4, Interesting)Yes, Zune sales appear "flaccid," but you don't need to resort to Michael Moore tactics to make your point.
Soooo....
(Score:4, Funny)Well, I'm sure surprised.
(Score:5, Insightful)(Last Journal: Sunday November 05, @06:31AM)
-jcr
Re:Zune's Problem IS......Balmer
(Score:4, Interesting)(Last Journal: Tuesday July 04, @08:57PM)
Re:Not true
(Score:4, Insightful)A product no one wanted
(Score:5, Interesting)It was almost as if Microsoft said "Let's throw millions of dollars at a market and see if we can get a piece of it." The fact that it was trying to enter a market that is already flooded with similar products doesn't help. The fact that the Zune is incompatible with Microsoft's music files doesn't help.
This is not to say that Microsoft should stay out of consumer electronics. The Xbox 360 has a good chance of being the dominant console this generation (outside of Japan). The Zune just happens to be a waste of time and money.
Re:A product no one wanted
(Score:5, Insightful)Not if the reviews of the Wii are any indication...
Most Microsoft products suck in first release
(Score:4, Insightful)(http://www.animats.com)
This is normal for Microsoft. The first release of a new product never does well. Windows 1 was terrible. Early versions of Excel weren't competitive with Lotus 1-2-3. The original Internet Explorer was lame. It took three years before ".NET" made any sense. Direct-X was terrible in its early versions. The original Xbox worked but was a huge money drain on Microsoft.
Then Microsoft fixes the problem. Each new release gets better. In time, the competition is crushed.
Re:Most Microsoft products suck in first release
(Score:5, Interesting)(Last Journal: Sunday November 05, @06:31AM)
Actually, the story of how the Empire tried to eat Intuit's lunch is quite an interesting one. They pretended they wanted to buy them out, crawled all over the place ostensibly for their "due diligence" for the buyout, and then went off and wrote an app implementing Intuit's product plan for Quicken 4. When Intuit realized they'd been had, they jumped one product generation, and went ahead with what they'd planned to do in Quicken 5. MS Money hit the streets just a couple of months before Quicken got their next version out.
Over the next year or two, MS tried the usual trick of bundling their product with the OS to try to kill Intuit, but that just convinced the customers that MS Money was a throwaway. Also, financial records are something that you REALLY don't want to leave up to a microsoft product. I know accountants who still use Lotus 123 because they don't trust Excel.
-jcr
Re:Just another crappy MP3 player
(Score:4, Interesting)(http://tron.lir.dk/ | Last Journal: Friday November 02, @03:17PM)
Although I rarely use it, I agree that the mass storage feature is nice to have when you need it; I can't image how an MP3 player could ship without it.
Some techies seem to waste a lot of time fretting over issues such as file formats, DRM, and technical specs. Meanwhile, everyone else is too busy enjoying their music to give a rats ass.
Flaccid?
(Score:5, Funny)More proof there's more to the iPod than marketing
(Score:5, Insightful)But I hope this helps put to rest the continued notion that iPods only sell so well only because they are a marketing gimmick or some status symbol only to be worn to look 'cool'.
The iPod is, for years now, been a well designed and well executed product. The scroll wheel introduced with the first iPod minis soon appeared on the complete iPod line when everyone including Apple realized it is what seperates it from all the other mp3 player interfaces. Well, it did until Zune and many others tried to imitate it.
The iTunes interface won over many converts from Winamp and Musicmatch Jukebox before they even owned an iPod. Simplicity and power won over again. The iTMS isn't the best selling store by accident.
Sure, the iPod is hyped, but perhaps it is for a good reason. People aren't dropped hundreds of dollars because they're stupid. At least for not this long and for this many years and different iPod models. Has there been a single iPod model that flopped?
MS Marketing "pulled a brown Zune"
(Score:4, Funny)I heard a guy at work yesterday mentioning Sony's battery recall and commenting they "pulled a brown Zune" in terms of their marketing failure to deal with the problem correctly. (Brown being the least popular color for the Zune).
Think of the uses... "The Republicans got handed a Zune in the last election".
here's the thing...
(Score:5, Insightful)The Zune could have been a hit...
(Score:4, Insightful)There is already word of mouth that the Zune is encumbered with myriad of limitations. The whole product launch follows a very traditional marketing strategy complete with a flash yet typical advertising campaign. In the days of yore, a company could manufacture hype for a product. Before the internet, word of mouth spready very, very slowly. Now, if you fuck it up -- you're done. Really done.
Who was Microsoft marketing the Zune to exactly? One could only hope that they would have actually done some market research on their target demographic. Enough to know that these people aren't as gullible as they once thought. Clearly, this isn't the case.
The product itself follows the mantra of design-by-deception. Forget all of the stuff about DRM and fair-use. Although that did play a part, the true problem with the Zune is that it was a product manufactured by people who really didn't want it to succeed. The modus operandi of corporations is to build a system to maintain the status quo. We're in a period of time where innovation threatens the life blood of the huge conglomorate. Sure, this threat has always existed -- but not to such a degree as it does today. The unwritten motivation for every decision is to make sure that everything is built to keep things from progressing beyond a company's capacity to adapt. Adaptation brings risk, and nobody in a position of executive privilege truly wants to accept responsibility for a failure, or responsibility for controlling risk. It's PMI training gone haywire.
So, how does this manifest? The Zune is a perfect example. They see the threat coming, they don't want to assume any risk, they design a product to fail and thus hurt the industry where the so-called rising star is coming from, and maintain the status quo.
It's truly brilliant, but this strategy is never laid on paper. It's never communicated. It's simply the ebb and flow of business, which is itself a manifestation of the human being's drive towards power and influence, which is completely derived from human desire for their memory to outlive their physical being due to doubts about the true meaning of life and death.
In an ironic twist, many don't realize that by being a part of the problem, by sacrificing forward progress, they are in fact going against the very nature of man's ambitions. This is, of course, manic. It's probably why we built the bomb, build biological weapons, etc. It's the vain hope that someday somebody actually will make a mistake and wipe us all out, so that some creature down the road might learn from our mistakes and by doing so, we may have a final, romantic sense of redepmtion for our own.
Re:Hurrah! Apple's near-monopoly is secure!
(Score:4, Interesting)(http://www.davidbokser.com/)