Zune sales: Already No.2!

According to market researcher NPD group in their weekly survey of music player sales, the Zune player grabbed 9 percent of the US digital music player market in its first week of sales. The Zune took the second position from SanDisk and his Sansa player.

Microsoft Zune player also had a 13 percent dollar share of the USA portable digital player market in the week ending Nov. 18, NPD said in its weekly survey of music player sales. Of course the iPod still has 72.5 percent dollar share in the USA .

"This was especially impressive given the Zune's single capacity configuration and relatively high price point," Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD, said in a statement.

Another research agency, Current Analysis, reported a somewhat similar sales reading during the same week. For the same week ending November 18, 2006, the Zune took 7 percent of the MP3 player market, falling behind both Apple and Sandisk

Yesterday we had sales numbers from Amazon, placing the Zune at no.75 of their top selling electronic devices. Maybe people needed to see the Zune by themselves before the buy the product? That maybe why the first few weeks of online sales are so low? The surveys were done at retail location only. Let’s give the Zune at least 6 months before we can really establish trends.

Source: Reuters and CNN

 

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Robbie Bach: Zune is a multi-years investment project

Q: You've said that the investment horizon for the Xbox is multiple years. What is the investment horizon for the Zune. Is it as long as Xbox?

A: Well, it's of a different nature. First, as we said earlier, the economics of the investment, the size of the investment have a big difference. That's the first point to note. The second point to note is the business works differently. There's new hardware every year. It cycles in a model that's very different from the video game model, where you're sort of in for five or six or seven years and then you've got the next version of the product, and you have the chance to make the next incremental leap. So, by nature, I think the investment horizons and investment cycles are different. On the other hand, I'll say our competitor in the music space has 80% market share. Sony only had 60. So, that's a little different dynamic. I think that's also true. But, yes, it's multi-years, just to get back to your original question. It's definitely multi-year.

An interesting article with Robbie Bach was published by A+E interactive. Robbie Bach is the president of Microsoft, Entertainment and Devices Division (Xbox and Zune). The article is very long but if you want to have a better understanding of Microsoft strategy in the entertainment market, this article is for you. You will also clearly see that the Zune can’t be a “fly by night” and Microsoft is going to back the product for a long time.

Technorati Tags: zune

You Broke your Zune? Parts Available Now!

You opened your Zune Player to see how it was made? Oops, you broke the main board? You lost your battery? Or you simply want to upgrade your Zune to a 80Gb Zune Player? Ipodmods has it all!

Main board, user manual, 30Gb, 40Gb and 80Gb Zune hard drives, earphones, LCD screen, batteries and more.

You want to install those parts yourself? Be careful! This normally requires as professional technician.

 

 

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Pink Zune Spotted. Any Orange Version Found?

We first thought that the pink Zune was for the Zune team launch gift, but Microsoft has a surprise for 100 Zune buyers. Those units are in the wild right now. There are 2 units already for sale on ebay.

But wait a minute; Zune team members had the choice between an orange and a pink version of the Zune. Are we going to find orange Zunes as well? Anybody spotted those? Or maybe Zune team members all took the orange ones and left the pink Zunes on the table?

The hunt for the orange Zune in now officially launched!

I find it strange that the rumor of a pink and orange Zune limited edition for the holidays was squashed by the Zuneinsider only 8 days ago…and now people can have them at Circuit City!

According to the Zuneguy, no one inside the Zune team knew about those 100 pink Zune.

via Engadget

Exclusive: Zune Facing Legal Issues in Canada

We managed to find insider information about the problems Microsoft has with the Canadian release of the Zune and probably other countries as well. In an internal e-mail, Canadian employees of Microsoft were told not to expect their Zune for the holidays. Period!

Legal and contractual issues with music publishers related to the Zune pass and sharing capabilities are giving the Zune team headaches these days. We could not have specific information on other countries, but Microsoft is probably facing the same kind of issues in other parts of the world.

Microsoft seems to have a hard time selling its Zune pass and sharing features to both users and music publishers. As implemented, the Zune DRM – (3plays-3days) is considered too limited by the users and it scares music publishers. The Zune pass is also a new model for major music publishers that are historically not used to make fast moves.

With only 2 million songs available in the Zune Marketplace, the Microsoft music store is considered limited compared to 3.5 million songs available at iTunes for the iPod users.

Microsoft also told their Canadian employees that they will have the chance to buy the Zune at $225CAD ($200USD) when it becomes available in Canada. That’s a good price! Isn’t it? Too bad they won't get it for the holidays.

Technorati Tags: zune

Run the Zune Software on Windows XP Pro - 64 bit

We have managed to install Zune software on Windows XP Professional 64 Bit. The software looks to work without problems. See a screenshot and Learn howto install it on your machine using our tutorial...

Your computer runs on Windows XP Pro – 64 bit and you really want to install the Zune software? But hey, with the avalanche of Zune hacks in the last week, there is one for you!

source : www.zune-online.com

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iPod Accessories are Outselling the Zune!

A look at Amazon's list of best-selling products showed just how strong of a grip the iPod continues to have over the consumer-electronics market more than five years after the release of the first device.
According to Amazon, Apple's 2-gigabyte silver iPod Nano was the retailer's top-selling electronics device Monday, followed by the black 30-gigabyte video iPod and the newly released 1-gigabyte iPod Shuffle in the third spot.

By comparison, Microsoft's new Zune media player, despite heavy marketing, came in only at No. 75 on Amazon's list of 100 best-selling electronics, trailing items such as Apple's $29.99 iPod USB power adapter, at No. 65.

First we had a few bad reviews about the Zune and now sales numbers are very weak! Should we be surprised? I don’t think so. Music players are not gaming consoles; they don’t generate passion the same way. People are not rushing to the store to buy a Zune but that does not mean the product won’t succeed. We will at least have to wait until Christmas to see how the Zune will perform during the full holiday season. Then we will have to compare the Zune with itself. This is a new product coming out now; you just can’t compare it to an established product like the Zune. It does not make any sense to do so.

source: marketwatch.com

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Zune “TV Out” Reviewed

3” in good but 42” is great. Yes, you can watch videos and pictures on your Zune, but what makes those features really fun is to be able to send the content to your TV. We were not sure what to expect from the Zune “TV out” but we were happy with what we found.

We first had to hook-up the Zune to the TV. I was not sure if we could easily do that because I did not buy the Zune A/V cable. But luckily, I could make it work (almost) in a second with a standard A/V cable that we normally use for camcorders.

There is no automatic video signal detection in the Zune player. So, you need to go to the main menu, select settings, than display and finally choose the TV out option to send the video signal to your TV. At this point, you Zune screen will be turned off.

There is also a TV out in the base connector of the Zune. This can be use with the docking station available as an accessory. You can bet other accessory makers are going to use that in the future.

I was curious to see how the Zune would use my 42” 16x9 Plasma TV. I can’t flip the TV like I do with the Zune…

 

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Zune Worst Review or Reviewer?

"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.

The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba's Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune's limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.

Andy Ihnatko from Chicago Sun Times was certainly in a bad mood when he reviewed the Zune. OK, the Zune player is far from perfect. We all had installation problems with the software (I still have!), we like the screen but the case looks a bit like a prototype and we were disappointed by the current wi-fi limitations. But hey, the product deserves a chance. We are seeing a version 1.0 of a 2 weeks old product and compare it to at 5 years old iPod that reached its fifth generation. The iPod vs. Zune comparisons are simply unfair at this point. iPod may be a better product for now, but the future may be in the hands of the Zune. Who can tell? I certainly can't! So, is this the worst Zune review or reviewer?

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Tip: Zune A/V Cable Explained

The good news for Zune owners is AV cables are similar enough to a standard camcorder cable as well as the iPod video where as swapping cables will give you the correct connections.

Anythingbutipod did this simple but useful analysis of the pinout configuration of different video players on the market. The good new for the Zune is you can use a standard A/V cable you may have at home. Since the Zune ground is located at the same place as standard camcorder connectors, you just have to switch audio-right and video connectors to make it work on your TV.