Wal-Mart Leaks Zune Price

nieske writes, "Engadget reports that Wal-Mart accidentally published online the intended price of the Microsoft Zune; the iPod rival would apparently retail for $284. The price was quickly pulled from the Wal-Mart site. Reports say that Microsoft was flustered when Apple dropped the price for the iPod 30 GB, previously $299, to $249. BetaNews states that 'undercutting the iPod is a major goal of Microsoft's upcoming effort.' Will Microsoft respond to Apple with another price drop?"

Comments

Will MS respond? Yes.

[RootWind]

Down to $229.99 apparently: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/zune s-final-price-22999-msrp-202066.php

Not true

[rbarreira]

David Caulton, who works on the Zune at Microsoft, has already said (more than once) in his blog:

A commenter mentioned that they'd "read" that Zune would cost more than the 30GB iPod. I can only say: Don't believe everything you read. I can't specifically talk about price, but I can say that Zune won't be undercut on price by iPod.

And:

I can't say more than what I've said, but the statements "The iPod 30GB costs $249" and "Zune won't be undercut on price" are pretty clear on that point ;)

Re:Not true

[truthsearch]

The problem for MS is they can't stand to lose too much on the sale of each Zune. While sellling the xbox at a loss they recover (somewhat) in the sale of games. They don't have a profitable music service which will compensate for losses on the Zune. Again they'll take a huge loss to get into a new market. But with the Zune they have no way to recover costs later unless they eventually raise the price.

Re:Ease of use vs price?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The "offer" to replace songs bought from iTunes is still an unsubstantiated rumor that I am aware of. As it is, no one is sure it will play Microsoft's own Plays For Sure format, so why would they do anything for Apple's product? They can't use the iTunes purchased song files, unless they crack the key.

Re:Ease of use vs price?

[falcon5768]

No its ability to play "Play For Sure" is well known.

It can't. Microsofts even been on record saying it, which goes into why they sold it off to another company and why a lot of the sites who used it are pretty PO'd at M$.

Re:Ease of use vs price?

[rebeka thomas]

What made the iPod successful was how easy it was to add songs to it. I haven't seen the software that's going to be shipped with the Zune but I'm guessing it'll be similar to iTunes.

Oh get off the grass. Almost every player EXCEPT the iPod uses the infinitely simpler method of drag & drop from the filesystem to put files onto it. No screwing around with a proprietary piece of software with all its quirks, just drag the mp3 from the filesystem, onto the device. Simple. It works without needing extra software installed whether you're on Linux, Windows, even another Mac. It doesn't GET any simpler than that, and that's what we already have for the majority of non-iPod players.

Apple may have claim to an easier UI in some parts of Mac OS X, but the iTunes to iPod interface is NOT one of them

Re:Will MS respond? Yes.

[Arwing]

The term 'dumping' is usually only applicable to international trade and that's when a country sells goods to another country at a price below cost. The aim for such tatics is usually to destory another country's economy therefore it's usually viewed in negative light. In this case, I don't think the word 'dumping' applies since it's a common practice to sell hardware for cheap and try to gain profit from selling software (xbox and pretty much all gaming consoles).

I would call this a simple price war, which is good for us.