Zune Market Hits 4%

[yoopoo]

Released in November 2006, Zunes have been selling modestly and have finally reached the 2 million-unit mark. Since Q1 2007, Zune has actually moved up the MP3/PMP market list to gain one point from 3% to 4%. At the same time period, iPod market share dropped from 72% to 71%. It’s bad news for both Apple and Microsoft after releasing fresh new lines of their portable media player brands. If you care to look at the table above, you’d notice after Sandisk’s 1% gain and subtracting Creative’s 2% loss, there’s 1% missing. Could this be Chinese MP4 players finally making headway in the U.S. MP3 market?

http://www.pmptoday.com/2008/05/11/z...-mark-takes-4/

I myself would not buy any mp3 players from the above companies, except maybe from Creative. Cowon, iRiver, Sony and Samsung all have superior products currently out.

[JonathanEx]

Now Microsoft, advertise Zune Pass and Zune Social properly, release it in the UK, and make it work better. The combination of Pass + Social downloading your friend's songs is potentially brilliant.

[bill0527]

My Zune is awesome. It does everything I want it to do and unlike Apple, Microsoft is fully supporting older models with free new feature updates without me having to spend another $250+ on a new piece of hardware.

[ninj4junpei]

*hugs his Zune* Well, it's a start.

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Yea, my friends want to get a zune for the big screen. The Creative's in the same price range, unfortunately, aren't as good looking. i personally want a touch just for the wifi support and all that jazz.

[harSon]

They will never beat Apple but they can easily cut a huge chunk out of their market share if they keep doing what they're doing.

[ninj4junpei]

They will never beat Apple but they can easily cut a huge chunk out of their market share if they keep doing what they're doing.

Of course they won't beat Apple, with that kind of additude. :p

[Seth C]

Apple pretty much has me forever due to the fact that my car stereo has an iPod connection. It will continue to influence my decisions for years to come. Mind you, so far that has only meant the purchase of one 4GB Nano, so...

[DECK'ARD]

Poor Sony.

Quite incredible that they went from totally owning the market with the Walkman to wiped out of it. Talk about misjudging things.

[WickedAngel]

Poor Sony. Quite incredible that they went from totally owning the market with the Walkman to wiped out of it. Talk about misjudging things.

Design decisions like the Bean didn't help much.

Yes Sony, I want a music player that looks like a bean...because we all know that when people think trendy, beans are the first thing that come to mind.

[RiskyChris]

Definitely picking up a Zune later this year after seeing the work MS is putting into social.

They will never beat Apple but they can easily cut a huge chunk out of their market share if they keep doing what they're doing.

MS did a damn good job in the PC sector.

[claviertekky]

Add Asian language support and watch the market explode.

[Danielsan]

Poor Creative :(

[Rayo]

Could this be Chinese MP4 players finally making headway in the U.S. MP3 market?

Or rounding?

[NinjaFridge]

Poor Sony. Quite incredible that they went from totally owning the market with the Walkman to wiped out of it. Talk about misjudging things.

Yeah, it is a shame that they don't have a bigger market share. Their current line up is nothing short of excellent, beats the ipod in every aspect except capacity but then again i guess they ar going up against the nano and not the classic.

[VALIS]

Pretty good considering how loudly the Zune was laughed at when it was first announced. I've wanted to check one out but can't justify picking one up as the owner of several iPods.

[JeFfRey]

Sony got what they deserved. While I still think that SonicStage was hated for no reason. I find it to be the the best music management software, and the DLNA functions help lots. But I'm still stuck with my Vaio pocket, because there's no higher capacity HDD music player.

[hectorse]

I loooove my zune original! It's an awesome device!

And the new update and social stuff is mindblowing, not even mentioning the zune pass is a really great deal for finding new music

[dskillzhtown]

They will never beat Apple but they can easily cut a huge chunk out of their market share if they keep doing what they're doing.

Never say never. I remember working at Compaq and in all the sales meetings people saying, "Dell will never be a real competitor." Anything is possible. Might be 10 years from now, but Zune might replace the iPod one day as #1. I am already impressed with some of the stuff they are doing. If I didn't have AppletTV, I might switch now. But with AppleTV being used daily in my household, I can't get off Itunes just yet.

Unless some kind of way I could use iTunes AND whatever the zune software is at the same time.

[Forsete]

What is the audio quality like on the Zune? We all know the iPods sound like shit, but how are the Zunes?

[icecream]

SanDisk seems to have a significant share... is it because of the price? I can't see it being better quality than Cowon, iRiver, Sony and Samsung etc.

[onegoodlogan]

What is the audio quality like on the Zune? We all know the iPods sound like shit, but how are the Zunes?

90% of this is a misconception because of iTunes low bitrate and the middling earbuds that come packed with iPods.

[hectorse]

What is the audio quality like on the Zune? We all know the iPods sound like shit, but how are the Zunes?

It's pretty awesome!

The earbuds that come with the zune are really good quality

[demonix69]

Creative is where it's at for me. Didn't know their market share was that low though.

[TemplaerDude]

Creative is where it's at for me. Didn't know their market share was that low though.

yeah that sucks for them i love their shit.

[Xeke]

I refuse to touch a Zune now that they are filtering for the RIAA.

[hectorse]

I refuse to touch a Zune now that they are filtering for the RIAA.

That's not true, it's been denied by MS that they are even contemplating any type of filters

[yoopoo]

SanDisk seems to have a significant share... is it because of the price? I can't see it being better quality than Cowon, iRiver, Sony and Samsung etc.

Sandisk owns the lower end mp3 market, they put out fairly good cheap players.

[harSon]

Never say never. I remember working at Compaq and in all the sales meetings people saying, "Dell will never be a real competitor." Anything is possible. Might be 10 years from now, but Zune might replace the iPod one day as #1. I am already impressed with some of the stuff they are doing. If I didn't have AppletTV, I might switch now. But with AppleTV being used daily in my household, I can't get off Itunes just yet. Unless some kind of way I could use iTunes AND whatever the zune software is at the same time.

It's possible but name recognition is going to carry all future iterations of the IPod for quite a while.

[scorcho]

I refuse to touch a Zune now that they are filtering for the RIAA.

let me guess, you also believe that Vista won't allow people to play divx files.

[incendiarycommittee]

Design decisions like the Bean didn't help much. Yes Sony, I want a music player that looks like a bean...because we all know that when people think trendy, beans are the first thing that come to mind.

I think it had more to do with their early players only supporting atrac3 (and not mp3) and high prices.

[perryfarrell]

QED

[AndersTheSwede]

Until they actually start competing feature for feature they will never overtake Apple.

The Zune did catch up to the iPod Classic in many ways, but then Apple came out with the Touch and blew them all away. MS needs to get out of catchup mode and start thinking ahead.

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

let me guess, you also believe that Vista won't allow people to play divx files.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...une/index.html

It's just a rumor, but how did Microsoft get off so easy with NBC while doing the exact same things NBC left Apple over?

[Ghost]

Good? European release please.

The Zune did catch up to the iPod Classic in many ways, but then Apple came out with the Touch and blew them all away. MS needs to get out of catchup mode and start thinking ahead.

MS is moving in a different direction with the subscription model for music and the social integration, the social stuff especially is light years ahead of apple.

They have been conservative with the hardware but that helps them in someways because things like smaller hardware profile, and longer battery life help them appeal more to people who like music, not people who like technology, which in the end is what they want because all the profit comes from the store.

[JonathanEx]

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...une/index.html It's just a rumor, but how did Microsoft get off so easy with NBC while doing the exact same things NBC left Apple over?

Microsoft later denied the rumour.

And on the second point, NBC will probably have more control over pricing, I guess.

[scorcho]

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...une/index.html It's just a rumor, but how did Microsoft get off so easy with NBC while doing the exact same things NBC left Apple over?

possibly, just maybe, because NBC is looking to break Apple's hold on the market. that would also explains why Amazon's mp3 pricing structure is oft times cheaper than Apples.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001113.html

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

possibly, just maybe, because NBC is looking to break Apple's hold on the market. that would also explains why Amazon's mp3 pricing structure is oft times cheaper than Apples. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001113.html

Good point, but the douchey "possibly, just maybe" wasn't necessary to make it.

Microsoft later denied the rumour.

I don't believe them on anything they say. They crippled Vista in some ways to bend over for the MPAA, and I believe that they'd do it for content providers on the Zune.

While Microsoft may be more lackadaisical on this than they may have made NBC believe, this direct quote still exists:

Mr. Perrette said the plan was to create “filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content.”

He's not saying this because Microsoft didn't at least promise something.

[Cdammen]

F YEAH! Rockin' my brow Zune (called 'Shitbrick') for nine months now and I really love everything about it.

[JonathanEx]

I get the feeling if they do start actually deleting content of people's Zunes though, or stop content syncing, the backlash will be too big. Microsoft can be stupid, but to do that...? I don't know. How are they going to check though? How will they know I didn't convert the video to WMV from one of my own DVDs? Something I recorded off TV? I get the feeling the logistics will mean this gets dropped... besides, an 'approved content only' device would be suicide.

[avaya]

Poor Sony. Quite incredible that they went from totally owning the market with the Walkman to wiped out of it. Talk about misjudging things.

See Sony Ericsson.

Phones make need for a personal music player redundant.

[omg rite]

The iPod is better though.

[Cdammen]

The iPod is better though.

No. Technically the Zune has a better audio processor (check the HeadFi forums for details, it's called Wolfson something), radio built-in and a really fucking awesome UI (I really like the iPod's but not the recent updates).

But it's really just a matter of taste. Both are awesome, beautiful and easy to use. iTunes is waaay better but the Zune software is catching up. It's quite impressive how fast it's evolving :)

Competition = Good

[harSon]

The iPod is better though.

Then the old Zune? Definitely. The new Zune completely man handles it, although I've yet to personally use the IPod touch..

[Cdammen]

Then the old Zune? Definitely. The new Zune completely man handles it, although I've yet to personally use the IPod touch..

What's the difference? The new one is slimmer, has another casing and a touch-sensitive scroll wheel. But they are almost identical when it comes to use, even more so than the iPod family.

And why hasn't anyone mentioned the packaging? Apple had some awesome origami-esque packaging before but has now (because of the heavy mass production) regressed a bit and have normal boxes whilst Microsoft is creating elaborate packages.

[Chinner]

i currently have a zen vision m and it pretty much roxs, but ive been looking into the zune and i have to say im pretty tempted. Anyone know when they're goign to release the third generation, as that may be the time when i 'jump in'.

[DECK'ARD]

See Sony Ericsson. Phones make need for a personal music player redundant.

That was like a last ditch attempt to salvage something from the Walkman brand after they'd run it into the ground.

And I've yet to see a UI on a SE phone that is up to scratch if you have more than a handful of songs. And they are always sluggish and counter-intuitive in some way. If you got used to an iPod, and it's storage and the speed and ease of use of the UI, going back to a phone for music playing was like trying to play the piano with boxing gloves on. I always carried both when I had a SE.

[Ghost]

i currently have a zen vision m and it pretty much roxs, but ive been looking into the zune and i have to say im pretty tempted. Anyone know when they're goign to release the third generation, as that may be the time when i 'jump in'.

Next year most likely.

[The Crimson Kid]

It's pretty awesome! The earbuds that come with the zune are really good quality

They're actually pretty terrible. They really overemphasize the bass, which obscures a lot of detail that would be easily heard by better, more balanced earbuds.

However, they do make low-bitrate files sound a bit better because the bass would cover up the hissing and general vagueness you get from a low-bitrate file.

Invest in some quality earbuds. You will thank me.

[rezuth]

Sony got what they deserved. While I still think that SonicStage was hated for no reason. I find it to be the the best music management software, and the DLNA functions help lots. But I'm still stuck with my Vaio pocket, because there's no higher capacity HDD music player.

160GB