🚀 go-pugleaf

On 15/07/10 10:03 PM, John Slade wrote:
> On 7/15/2010 1:46 PM, David Kaye wrote:
>> John Higdon<higgy@kome.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Now...if their devices could be worth buying in the first place...
>>
>> The XBox is a runaway best-seller. I have plenty of Micosoft mice, too. I
>> know people who have Zunes who are quite happy with them.
>
> Microsoft's XBox 360 has been increasing in sales each year and video
> games is a growth industry. I think there are more XBox 360s sold than
> iPhones sold.
>
> Microsoft makes excellent mice and keyboards. They make excellent
> hardware and most of it has been successful. They had a few flops like
> their smartphone they just cancelled.
>
> As for the Zune. I don't know if it's a success or failure. I hear it's
> selling out and I hear good reviews about it.

Compared to the iPod, any MP3 player, indeed most any consumer 
electronics device in history, is a miserable failure. You also have to 
remember, Microsoft is not competing with the lower end iPods like the 
Nano or the Shuffle or the Classic, they are only goig up against the 
iPod Touch. Still, the only time when they were in double digit sales 
share compared to the iPod Touch was when the Zune was first introduced.

It's not the device itself that's the problem with Zune, indeed the 
hardware is superior in terms of functionality and audio quality, but 
they lack the infrastructure of the iTunes store and apps store and they 
lack the brand recognition and coolness. No teenager is asking their 
parents for a Zune.