Now that the holiday shopping season is over, it's a good time to examine how Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) new digital music player, the Zune, fared. While Zune failed to make it to the top-10 models in terms of sales, it actually did pretty well.
Not surprising, Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod models took eight spots in the top-10 list and SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) models captured the two others. The data was accumulated by Current Analysis, a market researcher firm that tracks sales at Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Staples and RadioShack.On the hard-drive based player, the Zune actually captured 12% of the market during that time. This really isn't too bad for the new kid on the block. I'm sure that Microsoft isn't planning to stay where it is either. I'd expect heavy marketing, new models and improved position in 2007.
As for the iPod, it stayed in the top position and I doubt Apple would just let that slip away. Apple may, however, have to respond with some incentives to keep its share.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-05-2007 @ 3:18PM
Jay said...
Wouldn't Zune's share (12%) be lower if one could determine all players sold everywhere (not just by Current Analysis looking at Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Staples and RadioShack). Amazon sold a ton of iPods and then there are Apple's own stores (160+) which sold exclusively iPods and nothing from MS or SNDK. I'd guess that Zune actually had less than 10% of the market during the holidays.
1-05-2007 @ 3:30PM
Melly said...
Jay, you may be right that once you start counting other sources the numbers could change (you could add Apple retail stores as well), but keep in mind that the 12% mentioned refers only to the hard-drive based players, which is about a fifth of the digital players.
1-06-2007 @ 1:51AM
Steve said...
If you're Microsoft and you make a big deal in launching a major product, wouldn't you be sorely disappointed with the sales performance seen with the Zune?
Seems to me it is a total disaster in business terms and just another iPod wanna be, but neverwillbe.
s
1-08-2007 @ 12:27AM
Jonathan Allen said...
Jay, I agree entirely. I was about to post about the same thing.
We should wait for tomorrow's MacWorld Keynote to find out how many iPods sold during the christmas rush.