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Microsoft to Launch Zune in EU
An anonymous reader writes "Happy with the sales from the little brown music player here in the states, Microsoft is working to launch the Zune media player in Europe by the end of the year. According to the Washington Post article, they are trying to have a realistic outlook on the entrenched Apple product line. They're not trying to play catch-up at the moment ... they're just trying to get on the map. From the article: '"Our next round of introductions will probably be in time for the holiday of this year." [Jason Reindorp] said Microsoft planned extensive research with focus groups in Europe to see how it could be modified for a European consumer. He said the Zune had a 10.2 percent market share in the U.S. in the 30 gigabyte category, according to the latest data, and that it was still in line to sell over a million units by June 30, the end of its current fiscal year.'"
I was in my local kmart a few days before Christmas. They hadn't sold one zune yet (I asked), despite a prominent display exactly across from the electronics department checkout register.
I think MS "sales" are to big retailers and most of them are still sitting on the shelf. It's a dog. Apple will sell 10 times as many iPhones than MS sells zunes once they are released. Heck, even that neo1973 open moko will probably sell better once they are out on the street and people see them. The zune offers nothing really all that great, and MS in general is not held in near the high regard as Apple as a consumer "trusted" company, because their OS and browser has BURNED every customer they ever had.
Not sure how long it will take, but MS is going the way of GM. Once the most prominent car company on the planet, now they face further lost sales, they barely hang in around the junk/not quite junk bond rating, factory after factory is closing, and other companies have been steadily chipping away at their market share for years now. And it's because GM didn't get it on fit, finish, function or style or price because they were so big and entrenched they didn't feel like they had to, so they didn't. Way too much of their own koolaid consumed to go out on the street and LOOK what was happening. It took the massive global embarassment of a freaking cheap documentary movie to get them to wake up to the fact that people want hybrids, better mileage, elctrics, etc. Not a single big stockholder of GM or any of the management could read the fuggin market!They got so brainwashed they couldn't see the forest for the trees. None of them! Zero! Couldn't look past *one* quarter. Couldn't extrapolate beyond lunch!
MS is the *exactly* the same way and the only thing maintaining them now is vendor lockin and legacy apps. That's it, and they are only one lawsuit away from the big box vendors being forced to unbundle software. It'll happen, too.
Their off the wall markets with consumer hardware might be sustainable, they could be, and profitable in the long run-if they get spun off from the parent company and change their name as soon as possible and don't use any brainashed MS marketers in thenew company. None of them. They are all tainted with insanity and market megalomania. Crazy people, same as GM the past 20 years, just cuckoo with some goliath complex. They really need to separate the whole thing, starting with the internal mindshare/brainwashing. You will never "get it", what is wrong, as long as you are unable to step back and stop being a fanboy-and this applies to any company of any size really. That rah rah rah stuff may work for your sales weasels, but it doesn't work on the dude with the wallet for too very long.
I know if I was a stockholder of MS I'd be demanding a hardware split from the insane software side before it is too late and get some fresh non MS management to run it, as loudly as possible. Let the holders decide which way they want to split and in what proportion then with the stock. Some may elect to hold on to the software side completely, others the hardware, I bet most would do some sort of ratio and see how lucky they got..but it needs to happen. I guess the best is let them swap at a ratio for whatever they are holding based on a proportion of something like only 30 to one or something (I don't have outstanding and held shares and all the market crap memorized handy), whatever the math works out to be. Something better than what they are doing now though is required. MS today is GM in 1970 (worse actually)-can't see the tsunami of competition coming over the horizon yet, because they turned their backs and aren't even looking.
Not to be off topic, but that makes me think the PS3 will be an even harder sell in Europe than it's been in North America. The marketing here focuses so much on the technology that if it weren't displayed in the video game section of your local retailer, most people wouldn't even know it was meant for games. People don't care about the technology, as long as it works.
The Zune is certainly a more technologically capable device than the iPod, but it's not marketed well and isn't getting very good market penetration as a result. For those who have actually had a lot of hands-on experience with it, it's a really great device. Microsoft is firmly committed to the Zune, and will keep improving it and forcing the market to take it seriously over time. With the money that they have, they can afford multi-billion dollar pet projects like this, especially when they view a competitor as a possible "integration" threat. Nobody has really been able to oppose Apple's domination with not just a superior device, but the commitment to keep it updated and market it. I welcome the competition.