Microsoft says Zune still on track
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Blog: Though the devices still seem hard to spot in the wild, Microsoft says its market share is holding steady and reiterates its plans to sell 1 million of the devices by June.
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Microsoft is still confident of hitting its target of 100 million Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) downloads by the end of next month.
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One of the first things Microsoft did when launching the Zune was get rid of the two-year-old MSN Music download service. That doesn't bode well for Yahoo Music.
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Company hopes the release will be the last public test version of the Windows update, and says it's still on track with timing.
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It's not just about Apple's music players. Microsoft's Zune player also got a little less expensive today.
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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.
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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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InfoWorld - Microsoft has beaten its&#160;goal of shipping over a million Zune digital music players by June, according to a newspaper report.
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Microsoft announces release date and price, which means Zune will compete directly with Apple's 30GB iPod. Photos: Microsoft presses play on Zune
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As expected, Microsoft on Thursday took the wraps off its Zune portable media player, set to be available in time for the holidays. Zune features a 30GB hard drive, wireless connectivity and will come in three colors. But pricing has not been decided. Photos: View images of Microsoft's Zune
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newsmaker There's still a lot Microsoft wants to do with Windows, and it has its work cut out with Zune,  CEO says.
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Microsoft issued its second firmware update for its Zune music device, offering stability and performance improvements. In addition, a version of the software was released that is compatible with Windows Vista.
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Microsoft plans to release its Zune music player on Nov. 14 in the U.S., just ahead of the holiday gift-buying rush.
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The software maker won't replace tracks bought on iTunes as rumors suggested, but the Zune will come in a unique color.
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New features, grey area Microsoft's private deal with Universal Music to pay the record label a voluntary royalty of $1 for every Zune player it sells has raised eyebrows across both the technology and music industries. But it might not be the last payment Redmond owes from Zune, we've discovered.â¦
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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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Zune digital media player and online music and multimedia store coming soon, software giant says.