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.'"

Comments

Soon...

[RichPowers]

Europeans will be excitedly squirting all over the place!

Focus groups

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft planned extensive research with focus groups in Europe to see how it could be modified for a European consumer.

Preliminary results suggest that European consumers would like it to be "less crappy".

The "30 GB cathegory"?

[Martin Kallisti]

It might be prudent to ask how many different players the "30 GB cathegory" consists of. This sounds like the Zune's total market share is very, very small.

Re:Greetings!

[Rik Sweeney]

Actually, since squirting certain songs won't be possible, maybe I should

wel-
come
Europe
to the
anti-
social

10.2 percent?

[Rik Sweeney]

He said the Zune had a 10.2 percent market share in the U.S. in the 30 gigabyte category

How specific do you want to be? How about this:

He said the Zune had a 10.2 percent market share in the U.S. in the 30 gigabyte category, and 100 percent market share in the U.S. in the 30 gigabyte Zune category.

Re:10.2 percent?

[sinan]

He said the Zune had a 10.2 percent market share in the U.S. in the 30 gigabyte category

"If you can't make the numerator rarger, make the denominator smarrer."

      -- Guy Kawasaki - The Computer Curmudgeon

Possible reason for the move

[kanweg]

Is that because they have a big stockpile of unsold zunes?

Bert

It wasn't on Sale Here?

[WaZiX]

With all my excitement over Zune, I actually didn't realize it wasn't even on sale...

I've got a Zune

[Henry V .009]

My impressions:

• The wireless feature is fairly useless. It would be nice if lots of people owned Zunes, but I don't see that happening.
• The Zune software is really blah. That's unfortunate. I wish the Zune hardware interfaced with Windows Media Player 11, which I like more than iTunes. (The iTunes software is one reason I didn't get an iPod.)
• The killer feature, to me, is the unlimited download subscription service. I've been having a lot of fun with that.
• And finally, it's amazing to me how much money can be spend on a massively bad marketing campaign.

Even fish would find that statement too fishy.

[Futurepower(R)]

MOD PARENT UP!!

This statement sounds fishy: "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,..."

I suspect most people don't buy the 30 GigaByte iPod. I suspect that the "latest data" is only for new sales, and doesn't take into account all the iPods already sold in that category.

I also suspect that the "latest data" is a complete lie. Most people who call themselves marketing professionals are professional liars more than anything, in my experience.

I'd like to know how many people with no knowledge of MP3 players bought a Zune to give to someone as a Christmas present. I'd like to know how many Zune owners are dissatisfied with them.

--
U.S. government violence encourages other violence.

Re:Fishy Numbers

[WaZiX]

What are you talking about? They have HUGE market share on Brown/30 GB/Freescale i. MX31L processor ARM Core/3 Inch QVGA LCD screen(320×240) MP3 players!

The market share percentage is misleading

[PapayaSF]

The market share percentage is certainly misleading when you look at the raw numbers: the Zune was introduced in November, and by June (7 months later) they say they will have sold 1 million. On the other hand, Apple sold 21 million iPods in the last quarter alone, and over 8 million in each of the previous 3 quarters.

In other words, by June Apple should be selling about as many iPods every 10 days as there were Zunes sold in 7 months. Put it that way, and it's hard for Microsoft to brag about.

-better- europeans

[mbaudis]

we certainly think so. but then, we lack the outstanding politicians the current u.s. of a. is graced with ;-)

European modifications..

[pesc]

Microsoft planned extensive research with focus groups in Europe to see how it could be modified for a European consumer.

Beige?

Opinion on the Zune

[rjdegraaf]

Check out the video on the Zune Player (very funny, but true).

It discusses:
- MS Zune's does not work with MS Windows Vista
- MS Zune's incompatibility with (even) MSN Music Format (you have to rebuild your music collection)
- 4 registration's before buying music from the Zune music store (when player installs, MS passport, Music Store Website, Tag registration)
- Zune points for buying music, to mislead consumers on the price of music (1 Zune point > 1 dollar, thus 0.79 ZunePoint looks cheaper)
- Zune player WiFi music share expires songs shared after 3 times listening or 3 days (whichever comes first)

Hilarious!

See also: CNN.com ridicules Zune Player