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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?"
It seems that the Zune has a use after all, as a method to get Apple to reduce it's prices on the iPod.
So, the question is, will MS do with zune as they did with the xbox and sell it at a loss just so they can overtake apple.. ?
also, why is a zune price leak in the apple section?
MABASPLOOM!
Is this dumping?
I'm serious. With their huge cash reserves, Microsoft could enter the market in toilet seats tomorrow, price them at 99 cents, drive everyone else out of business, and drive up the price to $10,000 a seat.
We've already seen them put Netscape out of business by giving away the browser, so can Apple (or any other manufacturer) cry 'foul' and accuse Microsoft of dumping? What are the laws in this situation?
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
They have to be careful. If it is cheaper than the iPod, that could add to it's image of being a knockoff. It's like wine. People look at all of the bottles on the shelf and don't have any idea what the difference is, but their pretty sure that the $40 bottle is better than the $6 bottle, even though that isn't really true at all. Put yourself at best buy. The 30GB iPod (which you've heard of and seen before) is $249 and this Zune thing is $229. You quickly scan the specs, see that they are about the same, and figure that this Zune thing must just be a cheap knockoff. On the other hand, if it were $259, you might ask a salesperson what the difference is.
All of this is moot anyway - they went after the wrong market, IMO. The most popular iPod is the tiny little Nano. Unless they were trying to create a niche product, I'm not sure why they didn't go after the biggest market.
Who runs MS, anyway? Who thought it was a great idea to compete with their licensees? And then against Apple's iPod, where all others have failed? If I was a shareholder I'd be furious. If I were a licensee I'd be furious. If iPod sales ever go flat (don't they have to at some point?), Apple might get a nice reception to an offer to license FairPlay now... a real "plays for sure".
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Two words: X Box. Four more words: Two billions dollars lost. Including game sales.
Microsoft can bleed money, and not even notice it. More than that, the COGs of the Zune will fall, and, unlike the XBox, but like the XBox 360, Microsoft will be able to recoup those losses later on. MS is many things, but unwilling to learn from its mistakes is not one of those things.
Both companies will be making similar products at similar cost (using cheap labour etc). Apple has to maintain profitability on the iPod since it's a core Apple product, whereas Microsoft can afford to sell at cost or maybe a small loss in order to put strain on Apple. I would have thought this was illegal, but since it's standard practice in the console industry I'm not so sure. I think Apple is reorganising its iPod product, though. The Nano is being repositioned as the bread-and-butter line with the iPod being sold as a sort of 'premium' product. The Zune will come off second best to the Nano since most people don't want to socialise with their technology (mobile phones aside :P). An MP3 player is something you use when you are going somewhere, at the gym, bored or whatever, and not something you want to play around with infront of your friends swapping DRM'ed files and watching video. The raison d'etre for a digital audio player is... music, and by all accounts the Nano does this well. It's difficult to add value beyond that.
In short, the Zune has arrived just as the HDD iPod has left the stage.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
Yes, and we all know how Microsoft ran up the price of Internet Explorer once Netscape was out of the picture...
Yes we know, and for those skeptical people out there, here it is : they ran up the price by not paying anymore people on improving Internet Explorer. Which means that before, the price of Windows included the cost of the dev team on IE. After Netscape was out of the picture, the price of Windows didn't include that cost anymore, but was still the same.