Scratching my head at the Zune sales figures
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 31, 2007 at 6:52am
Kudos to Microsoft. The company says it’s sold (or is that shipped?) over a million Zune digital music players in the US. The Big M also says the Zune now has 10 percent of the digital music player market—but I don’t understand the math. And, apparently, neither do some other folks.
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, told the San Francisco Chronicle that “in the category we’re in, the hard-disk-based category, we’ve got about 10 percent market share” with the Zune.
If that’s the case the company has really made some in-roads. Bloomberg reported that for March 2007, Apple led the MP3 player market with 68.9 percent market share, followed by Sandisk (11.2 percent), Creative Labs (3.6 percent), Microsoft (2.5 percent) and Samsung (2.2. percent). There’s probably a great deal of variance considering that Bach was talking about the “hard-disk-based category,” and the Bloomberg report simple lists all MP3 players (flash-memory and hard-disk based). But still, from 2.5 percent to 10 percent is a whooping leap.
Also, Business 2.0 doubts that Microsoft has actually sold a million Zunes. The article says that Bach actually told the Chronicle was this: “When we finish our fiscal year in June we’ll have sold a little over a million Zunes,”
“That’s what we used to call an editing error, one that mistakes a projection with actual sales and expands the time frame by about 15 percent,” notes Business 2.0. “Microsoft still has more than a month to sell its first million Zunes, which would put it on the schedule it set for itself, not ahead.”
Oh well, as I’ve said before, numbers can be used to prove anything and 99.9 percent of all statistics are made up. Regardless, Apple sold around 25 million iPods over the same time it has taken the Zune to sell a million units—although that figure includes sales around the world, not just the U.S. And as of April 9, approximately a 100 million iPods have been sold. So the Zune still has … uh … a bit of catching up to do. And Bach was gracious enough to tell the Chronicle that Apple is a “great company and a worthy competitor.”
Competition is good; it keeps everyone on their toes.
Akust Says:
I’ve seen Dell DJ’s in the wild. But not one Zune. Perhaps they’re clustered in a few cities? Like Redmond?
Posted on May 31, 2007
John Says:
Because William, you have your head stuffed up Steve Jobs ass. How do you expect to see anything?
Posted on May 31, 2007
George Says:
John’s comment was unnecessary, crude and showed a complete lack of upbringing.
Posted on May 31, 2007
Knute Says:
If MS lies, and it convinces buyers that Zune isn’t a dud, and leads to higher sales, then why SHOULDN’T MS make the numbers up? What, is it possible that any media source would actually call them on it?
Posted on May 31, 2007
Walt Says:
> The Big M also says the Zune now has 10 percent of the digital
> music player market—but I don’t understand the math.
No, it seems you don’t understand the English. They specifically say 10% of the -> Hard-Disk-based <- segment, while all the stats you quote are for the combo of hard-disk (high capacity) and flash-based (8-, 4- 2-gigabyte or less) players. The latter are cheaper, and not surprisingly sold in much greater quantities.
MS has a problem to maintain “Teh Social” feature of any flash Zune because WiFi is a big battery user and significant cost; both will really stand out in the high-volume segment. I think they’ve painted themselves into a corner with that one: early adopters might feel abandoned if all the subsequent Zune buyers don’t have WiFi and the value of the feature is deprecated.
So good luck to Mr. Bach. Apparently on track to a dead end.
Posted on May 31, 2007
Yada Says:
William’s response, which was answered by John with such poor manners and without arguments, is a very valid point. In New York, one of the biggest cities, you can ride the subway every day and not see a Zune ONCE. I have seen more people with portable CD players than with Zunes. Of course, this does not mean they are not out there, somewhere, but it is significant.
Posted on May 31, 2007
william Says:
John, you are so eloquent. Have managed to get “social” with your Zune? I can’t imagine you get too social with anything else.
Posted on May 31, 2007
Tom B Says:
Maybe instead of just selling them a little below cost they should be PAYING people to “social” around with Zune, “squirting” as they go.
Posted on May 31, 2007
Dave K Says:
I’m highly skeptical that Microsoft will have placed 1 million Zunes in the hands of consumers by the end of June. It’s more likely that there will be several hundred thousands in the stockrooms of Targets, Best Buys, and Walmarts that have been ‘sold’ to those retailers.
BTW - thanks for the link Doug - you made my day
Posted on June 26, 2007
aceyriot Says:
you know what i had an ipod and i loved it and it broke and i bought another… and it broke. then i got the video, that one lasted a whole year, scratched screen, weak battery, then it finally broke.
so i bought a zune. its big, bulky, heavy...its sturdy, the screen hasnt even had more than a smudge.
i dropped it from my waist...twice, and its still perfect. plus i dont have to modify the firmware to have a cool theme...it sorts my music better. it has a much bigger screen, when i put it in my pocket MY THIGH DOESNT CHANGE THE DAMN VOLUME IF I LEAVE THE HOLD SWITCH OFF (which i do so i can switch the tracks while its in my pocket) oh yeah...and i EASILY replaced the 30gb hd from my zune with the 80gb TOSHIBA hd (last time i checked toshiba didnt make mac computers, but they make a killing off windows based pc’s) but dont be mad mac fans...my old ipods still make good use of themselves....paperweights, fix wobly tables...oh yeah the empty metal backs make great ashtrays and sorters!
i keep everything in those things; screws, resistors, change, hell i even keep my spare sansas’ inside the cases cus noone will steall my pos sansa if they think its a scratched up ipod
yeah im aware of the brown zune “hideapod” maybe one of those will be useful for keeping those ipods from more scratches.
yeah, that guy was right,you need to get yer head out of steve jobs’ ass! how many of you really did fork over the cash for a mac?
really?
i made my pc for about $200 and some change, after rebates i got from products that mac doesnt support. third party pci cards and faster processors really seem nice when they dont cost 3 g’s to add to my system, i dont even like microsoft...but at least my zune still WORKS!
Posted on July 15, 2007
PlanetaryGear Says:
I can’t wait to get one of those poor languishing in the back room zoons! And when it comes up on woot.com for $20 I’ll pick one up just to be able to get the drive out to upgrade my iPod :D
Posted on July 15, 2007
kaysays Says:
What about all the problems with ipods? The zunes don’t have any of that. I had to go through 5 ipods before I realized how crappy of a product it was. They freeze. They constantly need to be restarted/reset/updated etc. They’re a faulty product.
I’ve had a zune over 7 months and its never frozen, needed to be reset, broken, or anything. I’ve dropped it loads of times. I has 0 scratches on it. The ipods constantly get scratched up.
The zune has a better screen...a more quality product. Apple spends way too much time marketing and not enough time on the quality of their product. You make think you’re getting some “cutting edge technology”, but really you’re getting a crappy over commercialized product that doesn’t even live up to its “greatness”.
And like I said the Zune never messes up. You don’t need to reset it etc. But they don’t spend all their time exploiting the flaws on the ipods like Apple spends all their time trying to point out everyone else’s flaws.
Posted on July 17, 2007
JR Says:
Hey, those of you that are able to break a few ipods per week, maybe should consider playing with a rock, instead. I mean, how clumsy do you have to be to break things so easily? And how fool to keep buying the same thing over and over again?
Posted on July 18, 2007
Neal Eaton Says:
What are you people doing to your iPods? I have an ORIGINAL 1st gen iPod that still works just like it did 5 1/2 years ago. The battery does not holda charge for more than a few days, but when full it still runs about 7 hours.
I also have a 1st gen iPod mini (the green one BTW), and all I have done to it is have a replacement battery installed. It is 4 years old now, and still works exactly the same as when it was new.
Posted on July 18, 2007
M Fonnesbeck Says:
Now come on people, let’s give Microsoft some credit. I’m absolutely positive they’ve sold at least a million Zunes. But the question after working in retail comes, how many have been returned! Whether because the consumer thought it sucked and traded it for an iPod or other player or, by chance, there was something wrong with the product and it simply failed and broke. I would like to see the actual number of players sold and kept out there.
Posted on July 26, 2007
aceyriot Says:
all of you zune haters have no idea what you are talking about! ipods are DELICATE, zunes are DURABLE i dont need a rock! i need something that rocks. my zune rocks. And hundreds of ipods are returned to the store even more sent in for repairs! and in comparison to sales that equals TWICE as many fucked up ipods so come on!!!! give zune a break!! battery problems up the ass for ipods...they use the same hard drives how come they keep dying...because they spin too fast!!, how come the screens scratch...because its cheap crap!! how come the batteries allways die off...cuz apple does one thing good...they make things pretty and trendy...take yer trendy delicate clickwheel and shove it up yer ass and quit picking on the zune. we like them and thats all that matters!
Posted on July 31, 2007
Greg Says:
this is for the smart ones who keep saying the zune has a better screen:
it’s the same resolution of the video ipod, just stretched to a bigger size, which in turn yields LOWER QUALITY video.
Dumsh*ts.
Anyway, the ipod does have it’s problems, but at least apple doesn’t lie about it’s features.
Anyone notice that the zune controls are made to look like the ipods click wheel, but are just plain old directional arrows? It was the same thing with the LG chocolate. It’s all marketing.
Wifi sharing? Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that meant here’s a song you can play a couple of times before it stops workingi and you have to go buy it.
If your in the range of a wifi connection, you could just freaking go and listen to tthe other person’s zune! The whole thing is a giimmick, to try and get more money that they don’t need, and regain the market share from a company they continuously steal from. And you microsoft-heads have fallen for another one of their “revoluntionary” products. Congradulations.
Posted on July 31, 2007
NightWriter927 Says:
I’ve actually seen one Zune in the wild. Guy was getting on a bus w/his iPod-toting friend. Funny thing was, the guy w/the Zune had it stuffed into his pocket and was wearing the white iPod earbuds w/the Zune. I only saw it because he had to pull it out of his pocket to get his money out for bus fare.
Gosh… it was almost as if he was embarrassed to be using the Zune.
Do ya think?
Posted on July 31, 2007
Tim Says:
Here in the UK I’ve never seen a Zune, except on my computer screen......but I have another question, what do you guys do to your iPods to go through so many?
I have had my 4th Gen iPod since that iteration came out, what’s that about 4 years?, any way I use it everyday, change play lists about once a week and generally throw it around in my back pack or pocket with my loose change etc.
I have never had a problem with it and the battery seems to last nearly as long as ever it did, sure it has a few scratches but so what? it’s a music player and it does what its supposed to.
Posted on August 01, 2007
yada Says:
aceyriot: any comment that starts with “all you zune haters” should not even be read. Unfortunately, I did not follow my own advise, and I read quite a bit of it (it is quite illegible even for a willing mind). Your arguments are false, your reasoning is flawed and your general tone is puerile. It would be nice if people like you were not a part of internet forums. This sort of comment never adds anything to a discussion.
Posted on August 01, 2007
BillyB Says:
For all you Zune advocates, tell me where I can find this Zune community in which you live in, where I can effortlessly share songs that I love with othes who love music?
The reality is ,, in business terms,,, the Zune is a flop. regardless of the durability , open architecture, compatibilty, multipurposeness,customazationness. Its sales fall short of expectations. The big heads at MS got it wrong.
What we want is : quality, openness,low cost , ease of use. Anything more than that will detract from the product!!!
Posted on August 02, 2007
Travis Says:
I haven’t seen anybody in my town with a Zune, I haven’t even seen a store in Penticton or any place selling Zunes.
Another reason Apple has more iPods sales (apart from the obvious) is that because they sell EVERYWHERY. I can buy an iPod in my region almost as easily as I can buy a $200 car. (Seriously, there are a lot of people from Quebec in my town at this time and I have been offered to buy a station wagon for $200.. it’s probably hot though).
Maybe if Microsoft can start selling Zunes in Canada, Japan, China, they’ll get more sales. Their part is also to improve it, why not opt for some cool casing, that ugly brown reminds me of some crappy 1980 PDA, and even with their “limited edition” colours the texture is still wrong.
Posted on October 12, 2007
Michael Says:
After going through 4 iPods I’m glad to hear there’s a sturdier alternative.. I’ve been using my psp for portable music and video needs (And I even hear I can play games on it...) but after this I’m going to order a Zune!
Posted on October 12, 2007
Andrake Says:
I have a Zune, and I love it. I don’t need to share music, but I like that it never scratches (no I don’t drop it) and the screen size is quite nice, resolution or not. I don’t notice a difference in quality between the ipod or the zune, except the zune seems brighter.
I owned a nano before my zune. I liked it a lot, never dropped it, stayed in a nice case, worked great until I got a sad face. Was listening to my music out for a stroll, and it froze. I reset the darn thing and lo and behold it wouldn’t do anything. I took it back and got a replacement. Same thing happened in 3 months, what a drag. Luckily I got Best Buy’s replacement thing, so I decided to try the zune. I didn’t expect much, but its an MP3 player, and when I get bored, I can watch shows or movies. I don’t really care for a spin/click wheel, or if I can share with people. It does what I want it to do for a good price for the HD size.
I don’t see how you can hate this product, it works, as do ipods, just pick a damn mp3 player and enjoy it. I used to love ipods, but they don’t seem to last and they keep freezing. I can only hope the zune won’t shaft me over as well. I don’t know why elitism with a silly device can cause such a ruckus among people. You say “zune” and you get a “pff” and a laugh like they have every idea, flaw, and disgust of you and your choice in getting sound waves into your head. So thats what I reccomend you all do, ipods, zunes, creatives, what have you, and ignore this senseless hatred for a handheld device.
Posted on October 15, 2007
Michael Says:
I’ve had a black Zune since launch. Yes, the brown one is ugly as sin. Yes, the limited wireless sharing blows. Yes, I had to do a firmware update right out of the box, before I could even put music onto it. But it is sturdy. It has taken a beating (I’m a bit of a klutz) and only has a very small scratch on the screen that does not impede my “viewing experience”. It sounds great. It’s not really the size of a brick. I enjoy the screen size and resolution. 30 gigs is a good HDD size for me. I do occasionaly use the FM radio. And most importantly, it has made my daily train commute to work tolerable. And Microsift is doing well enough with them that they are releasing newer, larger versions, as well. The line is not dying out, like a bad product would.
I have previously owned both a 1st gen Ipod, and a 1st gen Ipod video. I had a lot of trouble with both of them freezing, locking up, resetting, requiring constand software re-installs, and simply reformatting on thier own, without asking me first. And god I hate that stupid click wheel. I like to be able to get to the song I want, not skip past it 10 times. I simply did not like the Ipod.
If you like your Ipod, fine. More power to you. I’m happy with my “defective piece of Microsoft trash”, to paraphrase. It works. What difference does it make? Do you rip on the Creative Zen? What about the Sansa players? Enjoy what you like. That’s why you bought it, instead of something else. Every company lies about it’s sales numbers.
Oh, and how many of you own a PS3 or an X-Box 360? Defective, problematic, buggy. Go by a Wii.
Does that make any sense?
Posted on October 16, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
william Says:
If they’ve sold a million Zunes, how come I’ve never seen one outside of a store?
Posted on May 31, 2007