Zune Sales Continue to Weaken

Dak RIT writes "Market share data for the first month of Microsoft's Zune sales is now available, and appears to confirm that after the initial hype, sales have fallen off dramatically. Microsoft came in fourth for sales during the month of November with only 1.9% of the market. Apple remained unchanged at 62.2%, and SanDisk even managed to increase to 18.4% (looks like the Zune might not even be able to compete with the rest of the market, let alone the iPod). The one surprise though is that the brown Zune is apparently not only being bought, but more popular than the white model."

waiting

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

I'm just holding out for the yellow model...

DRM is not in

[visionsofmcskill (556169)]

i hope this is a sign that consumers are not willing to play with the type of DRM that is unclear and difficult to deal with. DRM is never going to leave entirely, but most of the implementations nowadays are much more difficult to use and move about than physical media.

The zune is a particularly clear exmaple of this.

However i suspect the ipod has simply hit that monopoly status like Windows in which even if the competitors were good (or better) their chances of making inroads against the market leader are severly limited.

i personaly think the ipod is best of breed, but even still one has to wonder.

Where does monopoly come in?

[SuperKendall (25149)]

However i suspect the iPod has simply hit that monopoly status like Windows

Really - what is the limitation to switching from an iPod?

Sure some people have songs from iTunes, but for most music people are still buying CD's. The amount of ITMS songs people own is not enough to explain why people continue to buy iPods instead of other players.

With Windows if I want to buy almost any PC but a Mac, by default I get Windows. If I want to use programs needed for work I have to use Windows, if I want to access my freaking intranet website I need Windows (or at least IE)!

THAT is monopoly.

If I wanted to, I could easily buy a different MP3 player and things would work just fine - if it played AAC, all the better (wince that's what I rip CD's to). But I stick with the iPod because it does what it does better than other players I have tried - including the Zune. The iPod has a most not of monopoly, but of ease of use - in order to start making inroads on the iPod it must be easier, or at least AS EASY to use as an iPod - and if you read Zune reviews that software does not make it the case. The Sansa on the other hand is rather simple to use and doesn't try to make the users life more complicated, which is why people are buying them.

Re:DRM is not in

[daveschroeder (516195)]

- You can "copy" (or backup, or move, etc.) the songs purchased from iTunes an unlimited number of times.[1]

- Songs purchased from iTunes can be burned to CD (and thus stripped of all DRM) an unlimited number of times (playlists can be burned a limited number of times (seven), designed to prevent people from making copies of, say, a purchased album en masse; however, you can make a new, identical playlist, or change one thing about the playlist and then change it back, and it can continue to be burned as many times as you wish)

- Songs purchased from iTunes can be played on an unlimited number of iPods of any model

[1] Not only can you copy the music as you see fit, a new feature in iTunes 7 actually allows your authorized machines (up to 5) two-way sync all purchased music from any iPod. So even though people say, "Yeah, iTunes DRM may be okay now, but they can always tighten it in the future," Apple has actually reduced the restrictions and introduced features that give customers more flexibility.

In any event, slight compression losses aside, you can ALWAYS burn the music to CD an unlimited number of times, stripping all DRM permanently, and even reencode in any format of your choice. Yes, yes, yes, there will be losses from compression, but they are so negligible, almost ALL people will not be able to discern any difference in quality whatsoever. And if you're an audiophile-type who can, then the original AAC encoding isn't good enough for you either. So, the "but what about compression losses" is a bogus argument.

Lastly, this isn't about whether DRM is "good" or "bad". It's simply a fact of life, and will absolutely continue to exist as long as the rights owners have anything to say about it under current legal frameworks (i.e., for a LONG time). The key is making it as unobtrusive as possible, which Apple has done for the vast, vast majority of customers in spades.

Nice job at being wrong at pretty much everything about iTunes purchases in your post, though!

They lost their focus...

[alexhmit01 (104757)]

The IP cartels have forgotten how business works: sell people products that they want at a reasonable price, and people will purchase your product. Yes it is "unfair" that you are competing with "free" pirated competition, but sometimes, you draw a string of bad luck. Those of us in software development are competing against Indian and former Soviet states that might as well be free... Open Source development has expanded from infrastructure to more and more of the software market, and client don't understand the need to do custom work when the free stuff now "almost works as they want."

It's the nature of the market, it destroys people that are standing still. The problem for the IP cartels is that technology used to take decades to eat the market (VHS ate the re-released movie market, but created the home Video market, DVD ate VHS rental commissions, but created the home movie collection), now it takes years. However, if you move fast, you can make money.

Napster made it possible for large swaths of the public to become exposed to non Top 40 music, people traded MP3s around, and it was easy to get a file, but a pain to get a CD, so if you liked it, you bought the CD. Killing Napster opened the market to better P2P solutions. Apple created a pleasant way to buy digital music. The only constant is change.

If I were in charge of the music studios, I'd keep my legal teams on a short leash, harassing P2P enough to push people toward Apple and Microsoft solutions, but not enough to make my customers hate me. I'd use sites like Myspace.com to get my bands out there, and I would crank out new artists. I'd focus less on monetizing my archive with DRM, and sell whatever I can sell. I'd increasing touring, push SA-CD / DVD-A as a higher quality solution. Hit the market everywhere, some stuff will sell, some won't.

However, my biggest change would be my contracting of artists. The current solution, lose money on 9 bands but make a killing on 1, giving everyone giant advances to live like rock stars, playing the celebrity gossip game, etc., isn't working. The one-hit wonder who gets famous flashing the papparazzi is a dead strategy because P2P eats you, but bands with a following make you money. I'd lower advances, increase the artist cut, and get the artists to think like music creators, creating more CDs, and less time playing celebrity. When a band gets discovered, give them money to produce albums, not party it up. There are more music channels (XM, Sirius, HD Radio, etc.), most outlets for videos (Myspace.com, Youtube.com, Google Video, etc.), and more ways to introduce people to music.

Sure, piracy will eat some sales, but it will expose people to more music. Some people may never buy music, but others will if you make it easy. Get product out there, sell what you can, and keep the legal team on enough of an offensive to keep the pirates at bay... however, forget the idea that you can STOP piracy.

Also, STOP making the technology suck. HDMI has proved to be a colossal disaster, it doesn't work right. Havi over Firewire was the easier solution, multiple cables suck (component + firewire or optical audio), but the HDMI situation causes SOOOOO many problems. The technical hurdles affecting your high end customers are killing you. If you want to move discs, get people to WANT higher quality. SA-CD and DVD-A presented a way to make downloaded MP3s of questionable quality less valuable, but you never supported them, and required people to run 6 audio cables because you didn't want digital solutions to take off, WTF!

Stop screwing around, you're missing the fact that pirates attack your low-end, move up market, and just rattle the pirates a bit. You've lost site of your business, and became engrossed with piracy. Put out music people like, and sales will take off... even if the piracy rate hurts somewhat, you can move product. With a minor harassment game, high school and college kids may not buy CDs, but they will after school when they have money, if you have created bands that they love. The market is changes, adapt with it... but in the end, SELL product EVERYWHERE, stop navel gazing and running in fear.

Why bother.

[abscissa (136568)]

Why is it that companies feel they need to conquer every aspect of every market? MS should have left portable music alone.

(Cue the naive laissez-faire capitalists who think that this competition will create magic in the music industry)

^^ Microsoft shill

[Black-Man (198831)]

How much is Microsoft paying you to post?

Competition

[Nerdfest (867930)]

I (and others) looking for proper use of wifi, have already bought an Archos (604Wifi). Opera browser, network share browsing, etc. Squirting? Please. It's more expensive, but a far superior product at this point.

Might be something to do with the display set up

[Realistic_Dragon (655151)]

The Zune is out on display in best buy stores. It has one stand. The video it is showing is grainy and because of the strip lights its hard to see.

Compare and contrast with the iPod Nano - there is only one nano display, but there are about a million Nano's out for people to play with because they are being used as part of demo sets for speakers, headphones, in car entertainment systems, kids toys. There are just a lot more units for people to get their hands on and try out - at this point. I imagine things will be a little bit different when Best Buy has a whole aisle for nothing but Zune protective cases, like the do for iPods right now.

Even worse

[SuperKendall (25149)]

I agree the displays are not good - I spent some time with one at a target.

First of all, the Borwn Zune (there were two, black and white) was either locked up or had a fake screen. I couldn't tell, but the impression a user would have is that it had crashed.

The black one worked, and I was able to try using it (though the speakers connected didn't work or were not on). A real problem the Zune has with a fixed kiosk is that browsing between pictures and video and songs, the whole interface rotates - that is to say, Zune changes the display such that you need to hold the Zune on it's side for some photos and video. When the device is fixed upright you cannot and it makes it really hard to use - plus the controls are also rotated (up becomes left, right becomes down) which you have to figure out. Personally I really did not like this control rotation and found it made it hard to figure out what you were supposed to do in any given mode.

Re:Might be something to do with the display set u

[Darth (29071)]

Not necessarily. Stores are also a business, and if the minority product's vendor can subsidize its losses in one division with excessive profits in another, the store might be persueded to add extra emphesis to a non-leading product that its vendor hopes will one day become one.

So basically what you are saying is that microsoft could leverage their existing os and office monopolies to create favourable deals for promoting the zune and gaining marketshare in the portable player market. I wonder if the U.S. legal system will work this time around, or if we'll have to rely on the EU courts again.

Nah.

[Funkcikle (630170)]

The one surprise though is that the brown Zune is apparently not only being bought, but more popular than the white model.

Not really. Brown is a nice colour. And people who buy the Zune are probably trying to kid themselves into believing they are real and proper individuals, resisting all those clones and sheep who have iPods and iPod knock-offs. So why should they not go one further and get a wild and cool colour which nobody already has?

Proof indeed that people are dim. Bless their little hearts!

Possible Use

[dsginter (104154)]

I bought a Zune to use as a big screen TV. I had to make my own wall mount, but it was worth it. I measured the screen and it is nearly the same size as 42" monitors going for several thousand dollars.

In all seriousness, I was a bit perked by the Zune until I saw how big it actually was. I'm certainly no Microsoft fan boy, but what the heck were they thinking?

Data?

[EaglemanBSA (950534)]

I'll be more interested to see how the Zune does after a period of say, six months to a fiscal year. I can't say I'd be surprised one way or the other, but IMHO a month or two of sales data isn't enough for me to see whether a product is effective or not. How does this compare to Ipod's sales its first month?

Interesting

[punkr0x (945364)]

You have to wonder what these numbers are really showing. It reads like it's compared to all sizes of mp3 players, from little 256mb flash drives to the 80GB iPod video. I would like to see how it compares to comparable players, instead of overall. Still these numbers are surprising, it's a medium sized player at a good price with a lot of marketing behind it.

Why is everyone so surprised

[denttford (579202)]

About the brown thing? It's the only unique thing about the player (that is worthwhile). Incidentally, for what its worth, the sales folks at the local Radio Shack (Upper West Side, Manhattan) have told me that the Zune is flying off their shelves. When I told them that I was shocked... they admitted that they were too.

Re:

[snarlydwarf (532865)]

<quote>Incidentally, for what its worth, the sales folks at the local Radio Shack (Upper West Side, Manhattan) have told me that the Zune is flying off their shelves. When I told them that I was shocked... they admitted that they were too.</quote>

Perhaps they should put them in locked then. Shoplifting losses don't count as sales (except to the manufacturer).

Long term strategy.

[Rastignac (1014569)]

MS always had a long term strategy. Just wait until it gets better.
See Internet Explorer. Now v7. First versions were bad.
See DirectX. From v0 (WinG) to v10. First versions were bad.
Wait for Zune 2, 3, 4... Today, it sucks, but in a few years, it will be OK.

They probably know what they're doing

[Sciros (986030)]

I was all anti-Xbox when that thing first came out. In my eyes it was so much worse than the GCN that I couldn't understand purchasing one. PS2 sale numbers owned it hard, and were I a Sony guy I would have been talking the same talk as Apple folks are today. And now the Xbox family is doing just fine, all things considered. Maybe MS will actually turn a profit on those things within the next couple of years. After all, they do know something about running a competitive business, and with consoles they have the experience of trying to break into a market with an already-dominant product out there. Maybe soon enough the Zune will be where the 360 is. And as MS releases new "versions" like the Zune Micro or whatever they feel like calling it, they'll get more competitive. I'm a Creative guy right now anyway. My next player will likely be an Archos. But the Zune/iPod war has only begun if you ask me.

Brown

[phorest (877315)]

Dear Slashdot Readers and Participants,

While you may think the color brown is unhip, you must understand that from a designer's and marketer's POV brown has been a 'HOT' color for at least the last year.

Now my background in color makes me recognize when color-trends take over. All you need to do is get out of your house/apartment/basements and go to a trendy store like Target, Crate and Barrel... etc. Casually look at accessories for your hip and swingin' pad and you will notice that a very dark blueish-brown color paired with either a cream-color, minty green or a greenish-blue (think a pale cyan here) with nickel plated hardware (brass is out) are all the rage.

Now you may not think brown in any form is hip, but since you are a small speck in the marketplace for items without IDE/SATA/USB/Fibre and/or RJ-45 connectors as standard equipment, you may not realize this trend.

I know it's fun to make fun of MS anything but I just thought I'd mention all this because no Zune article can be posted without poking fun at the "brown one" either purposely or subconsciously.

Yes, in my mind even I associate the color brown with shit, and while the Zune might be a POS on many levels, the brown one does not reinforce that fact. What tells me it's a POS is that MS only casually wants you to know the Zune is an MS product, that with the fact the wireless is crippled AND 'Plays4Sure' is unsupported.

Re:Brown

[trybywrench (584843)]

go to a trendy store like Target, Crate and Barrel...

that pretty much destroys your credibility of knowing what is in

I actually have a Zune, and can see why

[Frangible (881728)]

I managed to (luckily?) win the Amazon.com promotion for a $90 Zune, and couldn't pass one up at that price.

The hardware of the unit is ok, but the sound quality is pretty sad. It's worse than my Dell DJ gen 1, which is based off the Creative Zen line. There's no customizable EQ. The interface is decent, but they really dropped the ball with the SQ. How do you mess that up? I'm no audiophile and my best canalphones aren't even that expensive relatively, and I can hear the sound difference vs. the Creative Zen hardware in my Dell DJ. Plus, the unit is a little fat relative to an iPod, and only 30GB of capacity. I dunno about you guys, but I have more than 30GB of music. The lack of an in-line optional remote is also annoying. The RDS feature for FM was interesting, but it seems to take a while to populate the text and it often gets corrupted. I don't know if this is an RDS issue or a problem with the Zune implementation. The Wifi, is of course a DRM'd useless joke that just makes the player weigh more. Bluetooth stereo headphone support would've been far more useful.

The software on the PC is the real killer. It's not iTunes. In fact, it sucks. It crashes quite often, has poor format support, is slow (seriously, just scrolling through music chugs). I don't like iTunes much, in fact I'm a folder/WinAmp man, but iTunes is pretty good compared to the suck that is the Zune software. The features to get missing song tag info also don't work very well. Seriously, if a file is named "Artist - Song.mp3" it doesn't take Hal 9000 to deduce that might be a good place to start looking for MP3 tag information. Speaking of which, the lack of support for a folder-based navigation system bothers me in general. That aside, the software is a bloated, slow, buggy mess.

Is it worth $90? Maybe. Is it worth $250? Not even close. The software sucks, the player's a fatty with mediocre sound quality, and even if the iPod did not exist I'd rather have a Creative or Samsung player. Bad design, and bad implementation. It's aggravating and annoying to use, and doesn't play the formats I use. Rio once had a player called "Karma". I think that's a more fitting title than "Zune" for what's happening here. Supposedly the odds of getting one on Amazon.com for $90 were 122:1 or something. In my crystal ball I see those odds decreasing in the future, unless Microsoft learns how to write efficient, stable, interoperable code. (hah)

Here's why:

[HairyNevus (992803)]

I own a Zune, thought it was great the first few days. Then, I started to add artwork to the songs...and the glitches started. Sometimes half an album would show up with artwork and the other half not, other times the album would show up twice with artwork for no reason. In the Zune library it appeared fine but in the player it was all screwy no matter how much I synced.

No real biggie there, but I have a lot of live concerts, most all of which span multiple CDs. In foobar2000, I had already had them all tagged accordingly, but for some reason the Zune just didn't recognize the metadata for it. No substitute field, either. It's really annoying to half to skip 2 tracks every track when listening to WEEN live in Minneapolis.

Still, I thought those were both kinda minor, but then I got to using the Zune for the real reason I bought it: lossless. Long story short I goofed up on reading the specs and the Zune doesn't support lossless. It will even try to cap your 320kbs .mp3/.m4a at 192 and convert it to .wma. But here's the question: Why would a device trying to compete--nay overthrow, the iPod limit its capabilities to anything inferior?? The iPod has its own lossless codec, which is quite good.

All those little things have the marks of typical Microsoft goof-ups and they just stare you in the face when you use the Zune and you hate it more and more.

Re:Zune

[aadvancedGIR (959466)]

The Zune gives you the ability to share music with another Zune owner. Of course, you first need to meet one.

Re:Zune

[by Anonymous Coward]

"what does an IPOD have (other than after market accessories) that the Zune does not?"

Third party software support.

Support for Mac, Windows 2000 and Vista.

Less restrictive DRM.

Ability to hook it into most cars and display track info on the dashboard.

Better resale.

The Zune might make sense at $130. But of course, then it would compete with the Sansa players which appear to be designed by someone not from the Soviet Politboro (Zune's brown color is widely called "Soviet Brown" in the trade and consumer press).

Re:Zune

[MyDixieWrecked (548719)]

One thing the Zune does have is underdog status. People who are anti-apple/anti-ipod who will do whatever it takes to get people into the zune culture.

So, I was in a GameStop this weekend (my friend was trading in his gamecube) and this woman behind the register was talking to a customer about the zune and she was talking it up like I've never heard anyone talk up any product in my life. I mean, she wasn't just saying how great it was, she was making up lies on the spot to this guy and she even managed to sell one to the guy.

When I heard the conversation start, it began with "so, is that zune actually any good?" and the woman behind the counter says "yeah, I have one and it's awesome. I threw my ipod out after I got it because that thing was such a waste of money. It only plays music that you buy from apple in the iPod store and I have an extensive MP3 collection, so that was all useless, and the Zune is compatable with your xbox360 points, so you can use that money for that. try that with APPLE!"

she went on to say how the ipod is $400, but the zune is only $200 and the zune can share the music which the ipod can't do. She also claims to have contacted microsoft and quized the about it and she was saying how music purchased at any online music store can be played on the zune, plus it has an FM radio, which is a huge plus.

now, I don't know what her deal was and I'm not even sure if she realized if she was lying, but I was ready to throw something at her. seriously.

Also, my dislike for the zune isn't fueled by any hate for microsoft that I have. it's directly related to the quality of the product and its featureset. it's a poorly designed music player (and I'm not talking aesthetically) and doesn't do what it should (namely, the #1 thing it should do that it doesn't is play Plays For Sure(TM) files).

btw, this is my 666th comment. yay!

Re:Zune

[nchip (28683)]

Anyone who gives a microsoft product "underdog" status should be castrated. There are zillion smaller and more sympatihc mp3 player manufacturers to give your sympathy over (iRiver, Archos, iAudio, ...).

Re:Zune

[Chokolad (35911)]

> Does the Zune system let you do any of those things?

For tracks you bought - yes for all things you listed. For tracks you rented via subscription - no.

Re:Zune

[Bastian (66383)]

Zune has squirting, iPod doesn't. Zune has a subscription service on their music store. iPod has a larger music store that also includes video podcasts, TV shows, and movies. iPod has toys like the calendar, notepad, and some games. Zune has a built-in FM radio receiver. iPod has the click wheel (which probably looks like a small thing to most people, but having used both an iPod and a music player without one with my rather large music library, to me it is absolutely the most important distinction).

But you really shouldn't just compare the iPod to the Zune. Right now if I were looking for a new music player I'd be paying some serious attention to what Creative is selling.

Re:Zune

[jonnythan (79727)]

The 30GB iPod takes up 31% less volume than the Zune and 42% less volume than the 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

The 30GB iPod has 15% less mass than both the Zune and the 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

The 80GB iPod has 167% more storage space than the Zune and takes up 12% less volume than the Zune.

The 80GB iPod has 33% more storage space, takes up 38% less volume, and has 12% less mass than the 60GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

The 80GB iPod has 167% more storage space, takes up 26% less volume, and has 4% less mass than even the 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

No one makes an MP3 player comparable to the iPod in the capacity/form factor department. Same goes for the Nano. iPod owns the market because Apple has no real competition.

Re:Zune

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'm looking for other young male Zune owners to squirt with.

Mark Foley

Re:

[Ucklak (755284)]

what does an IPOD have (other than after market accessories) that the Zune does not?

-The ability to act as an external hard drive in a pinch.
-A software client that runs on Windows and Macintosh.
-Seasons in the market.

Is Microsoft really going to go the distance with this or will the Zune become another MSNtv(WebTv) type of product where all the R&D is done and it just festers?

Re:Zune

[badasscat (563442)]

what does an IPOD have (other than after market accessories) that the Zune does not?

-The ability to act as an external hard drive in a pinch.
-A software client that runs on Windows and Macintosh.
-Seasons in the market.

A couple additions:

* A huge (and still growing) accessory market
* Can interface directly with a large number of cars (not just through an aux-in)
* Better software - not just cross-platform, but more polished and less buggy (even as buggy as iTunes 7 was initially, it was nothing compared to some of the horror stories I've seen about the Zune software)
* More software options - you don't need to use iTunes if you don't want to
* Clickwheel interface
* Better size/form factor

And yes, style. The Zune is big and ugly. The iPod is svelte and classy. Sure, that's subjective and you might not agree. Unfortunately for MS, 62+% of the market does agree and only 1.8% of the market feels otherwise.

Also, let's not forget that Apple has several different iPods on the market, and they don't break down sales by model. I think it's entirely possible that MS could do better if they released a nano and/or shuffle type Zune. They still won't catch the iPod, but they could easily triple their 1.8% market share (not that that means much). Apple has a model for every taste, where MS seems to specialize in big ugly brown boxes.

Re:Zune

[rolfwind (528248)]

With every Zune sold, some of it goes toward the RIAA. Apple (nor any other mp3 player else I know of) doesn't share it's hardware sales with the music industry (rightly so).

This may not be a feature, but it is important to some people. Also, there are a good number of other mp3 players out there, notably iRiver. Apple and MS aren't the only ones to consider.

Re:Zune

[scribblej (195445)]

Thank you for pointing this out. Of course, this is why I bought the Zune. It's important for me to know that my music player is supporting the starving artists.

Re:Zune

[soft_guy (534437)]

what does an IPOD have (other than after market accessories) that the Zune does not?

Customers.

Re:

[Buzz_Litebeer (539463)]

Actually I said I am thinking of buying a Zune, I actually have used an IPOD and have borrowed the 30gig version for its ability to play back a video clip on its screen when showing some product features.

One of the things I like about the Zune is that it seems to have a bigger screen, can get FM broadcasts, and its interface looks nice though I have not really had much opportunity to use one except at the store.

Re:Zune

[diegocgteleline.es (653730)]

Well, it used to be the case that Ipod had some *real* technical and usability advantages over their competitors, not just "style" (which is a stupid reason to buy something, IMO). Competition is clearly catching up, and if Apple doesn't makes big innovative updates to the ipod, others will have the chance to do and steal market share from Apple.

Re:Zune

[russellh (547685)]

Style is not just looks. it's sliding out of bed, lookin' awesome, smoothly puttin on your stylin' clothes, hoppin into your sports car and zooming off. In contrast, a lack of style is stumbling out of bed, not being able to find your glasses, forgetting to shave, accidentally brushing your teeth with the preparation H, burning the breakfast, and sighing as you get into the minivan with the broken muffler. Yeah, they both get the job done. One of them sucks though.

Re:Zune

[BoberFett (127537)]

The popularity of the iPod is beyond Apple now. Their situation is much like that of Windows. There's nothing particularly great about Windows itself that keeps people using it. What keeps people there is familiarity and the near endless amount software that only runs on Windows. How much money has been spent on accessories that only work with the iPod? Those people are locked in and like Windows, just the fact that something better exists (OSX, Linux) isn't enough to switch.

Re:Zune

[QRDeNameland (873957)]

Sure, the iPod may be more popular, but the brown Zune is more poopular.

Re:That's why...

[Pollardito (781263)]

That's why I firmly believe that the other manufacturers need to band together to create a standard external connector.

they could call it ConnectsForSure and their customers would be assured of a universal interface until one of the member companies decides that it might have a chance to be dominant on its own

Re:

[b0s0z0ku (752509)]

The newegg.com reviews seem to speak for themselves: while not perfect, this product is superior to the iPod, both aesthetically and functionally.

But unless it's very superior, Apple has a huge entrenched market share and a "name" in the business. This is kind of the reverse of the Vista vs OS X situation.

-b.

I'll take the bait.

[Cybrex (156654)]

Let's see. It's larger, heavier, has shorter battery life, is less attractive, has a clumsier interface (no scroll wheel and a less user-friendly menu system), doesn't support podcasts, has a lower storage capacity than the top of the line iPod, almost nonexistant 3rd party peripheral support, doesn't support Audible.com audiobooks, has poorer audio fidelity, only supports the laughable Zune Marketplace for purchasing music online (no podcasts, TV shows, movies, or games), can't be used on a Mac, and doesn't even support Microsoft's own previous DRM schemes.

Additionally the display, while larger, is the same resolution. The software it comes with has quickly developed a reputation for bugginess. Its one potentially cool feature (wireless) is utterly crippled by its implementation, with ridiculous DRM, no way to purchase music wirelessly, and not even the ability to sync with your computer wirelessly.

Finally, while I realize that this is probably a non-issue for most of the Slashdot crowd, the fact remains that the iPod is simply considered cooler within the cultural zeitgeist.

Other than that you're right- the Zune is a fine .mp3 player. Well, for some definition of "fine", anyway.

Out of curiosity, does anyone out there know if music purchased in the Zune Marketplace can be shared with multiple computers? Purchases from iTMS can be authorized for up to 5 computers. I haven't heard one way or the other how this works for the Zune.

Doh! It's worse than I thought!

[Cybrex (156654)]

Quick addendum to my last comment. I was checking to see how many computers Zune Marketplace purchases can be used on (just one, it would seem), and came across a deficiency in the Zune that's such an obvious oversight that I'd never even thought to check.

Apparently it can't be used as an external hard drive. Damn. I use my iPod as extra storage all the time. It's such a simple and useful bit of functionality that I'd assumed the Zune would have this capability. It turns out that it doesn't.

I've even used my iPod as a boot drive for troubleshooting Macs. I obviously wouldn't expect the Zune to be able to do this, but to not be usable for storing/transfering large files at all is absurd.

Re:

[creimer (824291)]

I worked at an office where the company decided that everyone needed a plant on his desk. One of my co-workers went ballastic since he listed the things that the company should be providing the employees besides a plant. The company backed off on the plant idea. My co-worker received a plant as a White Elephant gift, which he didn't take too kindly and promptly trashed it. I rescued the plant and still have it after three years.

Re:It's the hackers...

[photomic (666457)]

No. They will be called Zubunti, which is also Swahili for "tribe of horse-faced linux geeks."

Expensive but nothing like it

[SuperKendall (25149)]

I bought the 1st gen - yes it was expensive but I had enough of players with USB connections, firewire was way faster - so I bought it as a music player but also a portable hard drive. There was nothing like it on the market, as far as ease of use and features went.

It's funny that five years later, Microsoft introduces a player that can't even be used as a hard drive...

Sales really took off for the iPod when they introduced the Windows compatible model. The funny thing is, today Microsoft started with Windows compatibility - perhaps sales will really take off when they introduce software that lets the Zune work with Macs!

Re:Slashdot shill spin surprises!

[Darth (29071)]

The title of the article is "Zune doesn't shake iPod's market lead - MICROSOFT MP3 PLAYER HAS DECENT 1ST MONTH". That's a far cry from "Zune Sales Continue to Weaken".

From the article :
"In contrast, there are already questions about how sustainable Microsoft's Zune sales will be. NPD's own weekly data had Microsoft falling from the No. 2 vendor of MP3 players in its first week to No. 5 in its second week."

Sounds like their sales are weakening to me.

Hell, the article summary isn't even correct. Slashdot spin version: "Apple remained unchanged at 62.2%". Actual article text: "Apple's share of the hard drive market fell to 82.7 percent from 86.8 percent a year ago, its share of the overall market came in at 62.2 percent, essentially even with the 63 percent it posted a year ago."

As your own quote says, Apple's overall share was essentially unchanged. That's exactly what the summary said.
What the article also says is that the Nano (up 37%) and shuffle (doubled) market shares increased. The reduction in Apple hard drive market share could easily be explained by the market shifting more towards flash based players. The article's and the summary's assertion that the zune has had no impact on the ipod seems pretty reasonable to me.

The slashdot summary was even generous in its comment about the brown zune, which has actually sold as poorly as the white zune.

Instead of trying to spin existing articles, I personally think that it's time for Slashdot editors to just start making shit up.

You do know that people submit the stories and the editors just post them, right?

This attempt at spin is pretty sad. Why not just make up an article that says, "Bill Gates went on a shooting spree today, killing 100 orphan children, before turning the weapon on himself".

If that constitutes "shill spin" on slashdot's part, your response should easily qualify as microsoft shill spin.

Re:Zune potential

[Cybrex (156654)]

Paul Thurrott, is that you? ;-)