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Why Microsoft's Zune is Still Failing
DECS writes "Last winter, RDM detailed why Microsoft's iPod Killer would fail miserably. This year, the site argues, Microsoft will fail again, but for a new set of reasons. It is not obvious that the company has figured this out itself. 'Microsoft doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes in consumer electronics very well. When it does however, it frequently gets the timing wrong. This year, Microsoft appears set to compete against the Apple of 2006. It now offers two flash models, last year's leftover 30 GB unit, and new 80 GB version. The problem is that Apple moved the goalpost dramatically. Apple's new 3G Nano is ultra thin and small, but delivers the same video resolution as Microsoft's boxy flash Zunes at the same price. It also plays games.'"
Lets see, they are selling lots of them, and slowly gaining market penetration. I don't see that as a 'failure'.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
We need to have a law or something, that declares everything made by apple as THE only way of doing things, and also forbid other companies from making similar products. I mean, why do they even try? Apple is by far the best and when someone else tries, they're actually wasting valuable resources (plastic, electricity, and even silicon!).
So, Microsoft, and everyone else: please, stop trying. Apple has the only music player worth anything. You have no chance.
(If you don't see the sarcasm tags, then you're probably on a Mac)
Bah, you obviously changed the rankings on that page by looking at it. ...oops, wrong thread
* Game Over * High Score: 264,846,927 -- Your Score: 14
Exhibit A: Cute, functional, the industry standard. Everyone knows what it is. Comes in gift-friendly colors. A status symbol.
Exhibit B: Volvo-esque, crippled, and ignored by accessory manufacturers. No one outside Slashdot and the Black Friday Loss Leader Bin has heard of it. Comes in brown. Also a status symbol (but of an undesirable status).
Don't try to overthink it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Moved them and made them smaller. Try getting a chair between them now.
Zune shortcomings aside, just look at RoughlyDrafted's other articles. All pro-Apple. Is it a surprise that this guy claims that the Zune is a failure? Personally, the fact that Microsoft don't even try to compete outside the USA speaks volumes about their confidence at this point.
That may have more to do with the diversification of Apple's product line than anything. They have the iPod touch, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, the iPhone, etc. Microsoft may sell more of one particular model, but I'm gonna take a wild guess that Apple is still moving a lot more iPods. Out of the top 5 slots, Apple has the next 4. Out of the top 20 media players, 13 are made by Apple.
As for whether the Zune is a failure or not, it's all relative. If the Zune had been made by a small startup, it would be hailed as a potential iPod killer. But it's made by Microsoft, the 500-pound gorilla of the digital world, a company with a lot of bright people and billions of dollars at their disposal. When one of the world's most successful corporations enters a market with all those resources behind them, anything less than runaway success is going to be seen as something of a failure. Even if they do manage to grab a large chunk of the market, the question really becomes, how much money are they spending to do it, and how much profit are they making on each Zune?
If it was anybody but Microsoft, maybe. The problem with MSFT positioning itself as an anti-anything is that nobody thinks "I'm a loner. A rebel. And Microsoft is building the product to help me let the world know it."
Anyway, they couldn't done it, IMO. There's a saying attributed to Ford Motor Company that says, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." I used to work at Microsoft, and Microsoft's culture eats everything for breakfast. When they acquired my former employer, the first thing they did was wipe out our culture, and our culture was a lot of what helped us to make a product good enough to make Microsoft want us.
I left after a year and a half and know work for another company that was recently acquired. Our new parent wants to preserve our culture no matter what, so that we keep making the great product that made them want to buy us. What a night and day difference.
It is pretty impressive at first blush, but without real numbers its hard to gauge. Especially considering ipods occupy 13 of the 25 products listed, including #2,3,4,5,8,11,12,14,15,16,18,19,20. Zunes have 4 in the top 25, including: 1,10,24 and 25.
From 25 - 50, there are 2 more Zunes, and 8 more iPod model, From 51-100 - 5 zunes and 7 ipods.
That the -brown- zune is the most popular product could well be pretty meaningless, as well as a reflection of the blowout pricing. The black and red versions ranked FAR lower, and I find it impossible to imagine that brown is what everybody wants.
The point is: there are 14 zunes in the top HUNDRED, while there are 13 ipods in the top TWENTY. (and 28 in the top 100).
If the brown zune at blowout pricing can grab the #1 spot, yeah that's impressive, but really doesn't say THAT much. Looking at the numbers its clear that ipod still utterly dominates. If only we had the numbers so we could add up total zunes and total ipods then we'd know by how much.
Its also clear the ipod is far more profitable, considering the lock they have on positions 2,3,4,5,and 8 all at pretty much regular full retail, and especially considering the number 3 spot is held by the 16GB ipod touch which is their flagship product and runs more than twice the price of the zune.
Also, ipod, by having twice as many sku's roughly cuts its sales scores in half, because sales are divided by that many more products. I suspect that if ipods weren't available in quite the same rainbow of options as they are, they'd handily lock up the top 5 to 10 spots no matter what Microsoft did.
-cheers
Joel spotted the real difference between iPod and Zune:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/10/05.html
No sig today...