Microsoft's Zune may nudge into upgrade market, survey says
234948
Microsoft Corp.  may have  an opening with its recently launched Zune digital music player  to gain market share against the iPod, as a Reuters survey  showed that among consumers expressing interest in the Zune 35  percent of them were upgrading from an existing player.
346467
Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O said on Tuesday   it sees plenty of room for growth in the digital music player   market as the company tries to dislodge Apple Computer Inc.'s   AAPL.O dominant iPod with a device of its own.
413546
Microsoft Corp.  said on Tuesday  it sees plenty of room for growth in the digital music player  market as the company tries to dislodge Apple Computer Inc.'s   dominant iPod with a device of its own.
626598
Microsoft announces release date and price, which means Zune will compete directly with Apple's 30GB iPod. Photos: Microsoft presses play on Zune
336037
Microsoft has predicted it will sell 1 million Zune devices in its first six months, a figure that would be more than Zune&#8217;s chief rival iPod sold in its first 14 months but a relatively slow start for the much-hyped MP3 device.
161490
Microsoft's Zune music player, a rival to Apple's iPod, goes on sale in the US, receiving mixed reviews.
759891
Often forgotten amid all of the iPhone hype, Microsoft, too, makes a portable music player that is holding its own in the marketplace - at least for a first generation product. The company is now reportedly preparing a second revision called the "Scorpio" with an 80GB hard drive, which will join a new flash memory based Zune dubbed "Draco."
538074
Microsoft Corp.  said on Friday  it plans to release a new music and entertainment player and  accompanying software under the "Zune" brand this year, in a  belated attempt to challenge the dominance of Apple Computer  Inc.'s  iPod player.
147387
Are the devices in this picture interesting enough to make you buy a Zune instead of an iPod?
340683
Microsoft attempts to win over the iPod-infatuated Review After five years Microsoft has decided to combat Apple's domination of the portable music market head-to-head with Zune - a hard drive-based MP3 player with full colour screen and built-in Wi-Fi music sharing...â¦
541062
While overall sales may not be all that impressive, there is still a rabid enthusiast community looking to snag some 100 special edition pink-colored Microsoft Zunes, which have begun appearing on eBay.
565123
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. has predicted it will sell 1 million Zune devices in its first six months, a figure that would be more than Zune's chief rival iPod sold in its first 14 months but a relatively slow start for the much-hyped MP3 device. SinceÂ its retail debut on Nov. 15, customer interest in Zune has been lackluster, analysts report, and the company's projections for sales of the device are conservative. By contrast, Apple Computer Inc. will likely sell about 25 million iPods over the same period according to financial analysts, though the company only sold 600,000 iPods in the first 14 months of availability. Mike McGuire, a Gartner Inc. research vice president, said he was surprised Microsoft is expecting to sell so few Zunes in the first six months, given that the market for iPod and MP3 devices is thriving. On the other hand, "it's a decent objective," he said. "I was expecting a more aggressive goal," McGuire said. "But even though it's conservative it's going to be tough [to make that goal]." McGuire cited the fact that Microsoft is only offering one version of the device and the rapid nature of the media-player market, which is moving forward with new, cutting-edge devices all the time, as challenges for the vendor. Microsoft's achievements with Zune will depend on how successfully it builds a community around the product with its Zune Marketplace software and online store, as well as how quickly it can upgrade the initial Zune device with new features and models, McGuire said. Zune is in a distinctly different position than iPod was at its launch. IPods could only be used with Apple's Macintosh computers, which have a significantly smaller market share of the desktop computer market than Windows machines, the platform for Zune. In October 2001, when iPod was released, Apple PC market share was about 2.4 percent. And iPod was an unproved device, one of the first of its kind in a market that Apple ostensibly created, whereas Zune has the benefit of entering a thriving market. Of course, iTunes software for iPods now runs on millions of Windows PCs in addition to Macs. To date, Apple has sold more than 67 million iPods, and should sell about 82 million by the end of the year. The company has several versions of the iPod -- the video iPod, the iPod nano and the iPod shuffle -- in various sizes and colors. There are also an extensive array of accessories available for iPods. Microsoft's 30G-byte Zune costs US$249.99, the same price as the video iPod, but it's different from the iPod in two key ways. Zune includes an FM tuner and wireless capability that allows users to share songs between devices.
756477
PERSPECTIVE This week's revelations from Microsoft concerning its forthcoming Zune portable media player have been appropriately called a "non-announcement announcement." But analysts tell BetaNews there's still good reason to believe this bewildering new market entry could actually succeed.
293034
Jingle bells Microsoft has confirmed it will detail its second-generation Zune media players in time for the Christmas sales season. Speculation as to what the software giant will announce currently centres on a higher capacity hard drive model and a cheaper, Flash-based Zune.â¦
629027
REVIEW Ed Oswald sits down to play with Microsoft's Zune, and finds along the way the same problems that have plagued the Redmond company all along in the digital music business. But do these issues hold back the Zune or does Apple finally have some real competition?
494726
Microsoft Corp.  said on  Tuesday that it is "not unreasonable" for the company to  introduce a mobile phone combined with features of its Zune  digital music player to compete with Apple Inc.'s   iPhone.
712200
(InfoWorld) - In what can be seen as either a joke or a real attempt to get employees to give up Apple iPods in favor of the Zune MP3 player, the team at Microsoft that builds Zune has set up a bin at its headquarters so employees can drop in iPods they don't want to use anymore. A photo of the "iPod Amnesty Bin" , which has on it an image of a bitten green apple and the words "Bite me," has been posted on Flickr. From the looks of the photo, not many people have been willing to give up their iPods, though a few of the earlier versions of Apple Inc.'s popular media players were lying at the bottom of the bin. A user who calls himself "fimoculous" and identified himself in an e-mail as MSNBC.com employee Rex Sorgatz , posted the photo, and said he thought the bin was someone's idea of a joke, nothing more. MSNBC.com is a joint media venture between Microsoft and MSNBC. "My guess is someone at Zune thought it would be funny, that's all," he said. Sorgatz said he is an iPod user, but could be convinced to switch if he found a superior product. Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, also suspects the bin's placement is meant to be funny, as it would likely be in the Zune team's best interest to use the latest iPod devices for competitive purposes. Indeed, none of the iPods in the bin in the photo were current versions. "Most of the people [working on] Zune would want to have an iPod to keep track of the competition," he said. "On that team, they're all into digital music, so all of them probably have a bunch of players." The photo got numerous comments from Flickr users, who in general thought it was amusing, though some were less impressed than others by the joke. "Only someone stupid enough to buy a Zune would be equally stupid enough to not sell their discarded iPod on eBay," commented Ariel Waldman , (ariel_waldman on Flickr), a digital insights analyst at interactive marketing agency VML Inc. "That's funny," wrote another who goes by "Dr_Watso" on Flickr. " I was always amazed that people ... jumped on the iPod bandwagon, even though there are so many much better devices that cost a whole lot less." The Zune team is based at Microsoft's Bear Creek offices in Redmond, Washington, near the main campus. An Apple spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for the Microsoft public relations agency that represents Zune said she could not reach anyone on the team for comment, but she suspects the bin is meant to be a joke or a "morale booster" for employees at Zune headquarters. Microsoft launched the Zune last November, but the device has done little to sap enthusiasm for the iPod, which remains a top seller in the hard-drive media-player market, according to marketing-research firm NPD. Still, Microsoft is ramping up its marketing efforts around Zune in the hopes it can drum up interest in the device. The company released a pink Zune earlier this month that is outselling Zunes in white and brown, according to the company, and also launched a new print advertising campaign to promote the pink Zune called "Sync Pink." Microsoft also introduced a new TV commercial that highlights the features of Zune that differentiate it from the iPod, such as wireless sharing and the FM radio tuner. Microsoft is leveraging the popularity of its Xbox game console to promote Zune as well. In light of the highly anticipated release of the "Halo 3" Xbox game later this year, Microsoft unveiled a limited edition, "Halo"-themed Zune that comes preloaded with "Halo" videos, soundtracks and trailers. The device will be offered exclusively at GameStop retail stores and on its online store beginning June 15. There already have been preorders for the device, Microsoft said.