Zune to sell one million by June
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Microsoft MP3 player exceeds expectations Microsoft expects sales of the Zune to hit the one million milestone by the end of June, almost eight months after the product made its debut. Apple on the other hand has sold 100 million of the music players since its launch in October 2001.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Napster, the remade version of the popular Internet music sharing service, is in talks over a sale or possible strategic partnership, the company said Monday. The announcement comes as a steady stream of new competitors enter the market, includingÂ SanDisk with partner RealNetworks, andÂ Microsoft with its Zune MarketplaceÂ strategy. It also comes amid a sharp downturn in user figures for Napster, which has seen its user base erode to 512,000 users at the end of June, from 606,000 at the end of March. Napster said it has hired UBS Investment Bank to assist management in the "evaluation of strategic alternatives," in response to interest from a third party in potentially acquiring or establishing a venture with the company. Napster also said it remains in a strong position to continue building its own business, with or without such a deal, highlighting its cash position of $97 million. The announcement sent Napster's Nasdaq-listed stock up 12.4 percent in after-market trading, to $3.99. The company set no timetable for finalizing the evaluation, and said the talks may not result in any deals. Formed in 1999, Napster popularized peer-to-peer music sharing on the Internet, gaining notoriety when a recording industry lawsuit ultimately shut it down and set the precedent for further legal victories over similar online services. A few years after the legal defeat, RoxioÂ bought the rights to its name, and in late 2003Â re-launched itÂ as a legal music download store. Napster faced stiff competition from the moment of its rebirth, mainly from Apple ComputerÂ and its popular iPods, and the iTunes Music Store. Napster currently offers a free 512MB digital music player, or a 1GB one for $50 to users who sign up for its monthly service for three months. It also started an advertising-supported music service in May that allows users to listen more than two million songs at no charge, up to five times each. The company reported a net loss of $9.8 millionÂ in the three months ending June 30, on revenue of $28.1 million.
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In what a Microsoft executive claims is a good but not overwhelming start, the company says it will have sold one million Zune media players by the end of June.
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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.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. cut the suggested retail price of its Zune music and video player by 20 percent yesterday, the same day Apple Inc. released new versions of its iPod media player.
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Microsoft's iPod rival Zune will be on store shelves in time for the holiday shopping season.
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(InfoWorld) - Financial analysts watching the consumer electronics space report that early sales of Microsoft Corp.'s Zune player should give little reason for iPod loyalists and Apple Computer Inc. to fear this holiday season. Since its retail debut on Nov. 15, customer interest in Zune has been lackluster, analysts report. Early reviews of the product have been less than stellar as well. According to a research note published Tuesday by PiperJaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster, only 8 percent of 40 retailers surveyed by the firm recommend the Zune to customers, while 75 percent recommend Apple's iPod. Moreover, some MP3 salespeople hadn't even heard of Zune, even though the players are being sold at their stores, he wrote in his report. Quotes from retail clerks cited in Munster's report range from them claiming they don't know what the Zune is, to comments that Zune is a good option if a customer does not use Apple's iTunes software. "To be honest, I don't really know much about the Zune," one clerk is quoted as saying in Munster's report. Another said, "I don't suggest the Zune because it is really heavy," according to the report. Zune also did not fair well against other MP3 players and Apple's iPod even during its initial week of sales, when the hype surrounding the product was at its peak. According to Munster's report, during its launch week on Nov. 16, Zune held the seventh spot on online retailer Amazon.com's top 10 best-selling MP3 players list, and it fell from that spot to 13 on the list only five days after launch, on Nov. 20. "The buzz that Microsoft was able to generate for the Zune's launch clearly helped the player in its first week, but much of the publicity took the form of Zune/iPod comparisons," Munster wrote. He added that these comparisons show that Zune "failed to match up in the eyes of most reviewers" to the iPod, a fact that negatively affected sales of the device. Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore wrote Monday that the iPod continues to be a strong seller going into the busy holiday shopping season, and the 30G-byte video iPods -- with which Zune competes -- "appear to be immune to the Zune." He said both the 30G-byte video iPods and the new 4G-byte iPods nanos currently are popular with consumers. A note about Apple's performance from financial firm UBS IT hardware analyst Ben Reitzes also said that Zune does not appear to be any threat to iPod at this time. To be fair, Apple has a five-year head start in the music and video player market, and no one expected Microsoft's first entry would be comparable right away to the immensely popular iPod. Microsoft has said it plans to invest significantly in the Zune over the next several years, and the device is expected to become more competitive. Microsoft's 30G-byte Zune costs US$249.99, the same as Apple's video iPod, but is different from the iPod in two key ways. Zune includes an FM tuner and wireless capability that allows users to share songs between devices.
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Microsoft Corp.  forecast on  Wednesday that sales of its Zune music player will exceed one  million units by the end of June 2007 despite a tepid start for  the device.
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Microsoft plans to release an update to the firmware of its Zune music player in mid-March, remedying several issues including skipping. However, the update does not include any support for direct video downloading or podcasts just yet.
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Microsoft says its Zune music player will cost $249.99 in the US when it goes on sale on 14 November.
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Correcting a translation error that sparked a number of reports stating Microsoft planned to release its Zune portable music player in Europe, but not until 2008, the company now says it has no set timeframe. The confusion came in a response Steve Ballmer made to a German magazine.
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Blog: A Zune fan site is reporting on a Microsoft patent filing that describes a system for paying Zune users commissions for sharing a song that the recipient ends up buying.
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Microsoft Corp.  forecast on Wednesday that sales of its Zune music player will exceed one million units by the end of June 2007 despite a tepid start for the device.
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Zzzz...wake me when it arrives Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told German business and economics magazine Wirtschafts Woche in an interview that Microsoft will delay the European launch of its moderately-waited Zune MP3 player until next year.â¦
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Microsoft's answer to the iPod, the Zune player, will cost $249.99 and is slated to ship Nov. 14.
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(InfoWorld) - A Microsoft executive who helped develop the company'sÂ new Zune music playerÂ and other products is leaving the company, Microsoft said Wednesday. Bryan Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft's entertainment business, "has decided to retire from Microsoft to pursue personal interests," the company said in a prepared statement. Lee reported to Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, who hired Lee in 2000. Bach said during his tenure Lee worked on development and deployment of the Xbox gaming system, the Windows XP Media Center operating system and the company's IP-television initiatives. "I want to extend my thanks to Bryan from the company and from me personally, for all of his contributions to Microsoft," Bach said. The Zune music player,Â introduced in November 2006, has been touted as Microsoft's challenge to the market-leading MP3 player, the iPod from Apple. Zune users can download music or videos from Microsoft's Zune.com Web site to the 30GB player. Unlike the iPod, the Zune is equipped with Wi-Fi. Lee will remain at Microsoft for a few more weeks to assist in the transition, the company said. J. Allard, corporate vice president of design and development, will take over full responsibility for the Zune. Joe Belfiore and Enrique Rodriguez, both corporate vice presidents who had reported to Lee, will now report to Bach.
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Microsoft Corp.  may have  a chance to take market share from the iPod as a Reuters survey  showed 35 percent of those interested in its Zune device would  be replacing an existing digital music player.