RSSReporter's Notebook: In Search of Zune
By Ed Oswald | Published November 14, 2006, 6:12 PM
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK With all the hype surrounding the launch of Microsoft's Zune music player, I set out Tuesday afternoon to see if sales of the product were matching those lofty expectations. From the look of things, that hype may be exceeding reality for the time being.
For the purposes of this article, I visited four major retailers -- Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart -- all in the Reading, PA area, a city about 65 miles to the northwest of Philadelphia. While this suburb is a good ways away from the "megalopolis," it is by no means small town America.
My results were notably mixed, ranging from one store still assembling the Zune display and not having any out on racks to sell, to another which said sales had been surprisingly brisk.
First on the itinerary was Target, where I was greeted upon entrance to the electronics section by a nice Zune promotional display. However, the working model that is supposed to allow consumers to test out the device was inoperable, and upon attempting to turn it on I was greeted with an icon that I'm guessing meant the battery had no charge.
So much for that.
Regardless, I found the boxed Zunes -- 11 of them -- stuck in the security case right next to the iPods. It had looked like one white had sold so far. My timing was impeccable; seconds later a young woman came up the aisle and asked the salesman, "do you have any Zunes?"
The salesmen said yes, and begun to answer her questions, ranging from what he had heard about the device to whether or not she could import her CDs onto it. He obliged and told her what she wanted to know, adding if she were a fan of the iPod, she'd probably equate the player with blasphemy.
"I'm not one of them," she quipped. "I'm no fan of the iPod." With that, she asked for the brown model, and went on her way. Chalk up one sale for the Anything-but-iPod crowd.
My next stop was Best Buy, where the story was markedly different. Walking in, I found no indication that the Zune was even there, although I would find them displayed next to the other MP3 players in the wireless phone section.
Again, I was treated to another Zune sale (yes, another brown one) by a twenty-something young woman with her friend. She even bought a nice leather case. Good to see the accessory market is already alive and well.
Upon finishing with the customer, the employee came over and we proceeded to discuss how things were going with the Zune launch, at least from his perspective. "Actually surprisingly well," he responded. "We've sold at least 10 to 15 of them since I've been here."
When asked what colors were selling best, with a chuckle he said, "Believe it or not, the brown is flying off the shelves. All but a few of them have been that color." Also a hot seller? Black. Not so hot was white. He didn't know of any white Zunes that had sold all day.
I then proceeded to ask for a demonstration of the vaunted wireless capabilities of the Zune, which to my surprise, the salesperson did not know. He said several employees had spent several hours trying to figure out how to do it.
My attempts were to no avail as well. We could not figure out how to share songs even after 20 minutes of going through the menus and trying every single option. So much for the Zune's biggest feature working easily out of the box.
Just up the street was Circuit City, where I was shocked to find the Zune promotional display still in pieces, complete with a Microsoft employee apparently struggling to put it together. Nowhere to be found were the Zunes for sale, not even in the case along with the other MP3 players.
After several exasperated calls to his boss, the young man said that a cord was missing from the display, and that some item would "not be available until after Thanksgiving." Maybe this is what caused the other Zune display to be non-functional? One can only guess.
Unfortunately, unlike the trips to the first three retailers, my excursion to Wal-Mart was far less eventful. In fact, of all the retailers, even finding the music player was the hardest of all. I initially thought the player was not in stock, as every music player from the Sansa to the Zen to the iPod was displayed.
After some searching, however, I finally found them, somewhat hidden in the case. Wal-Mart was only stocking the black Zune, and it appeared as if they hadn't even been moved -- they were still stacked nicely in their spot. Not even Wal-Mart's promise of low prices had apparently opened the pocketbooks of the retailer's thrifty patrons.
While sales here in Reading, PA may not be exactly representative of the nation at large, it appears that the Zune is off to a slow, if not rocky start. But the biggest surprise of all may just be that when it comes to Zune fans, brown is indeed the new black.
Ok here is the deal i bought a Zune last night from Walmart just to try it out buying something from Walmart does not set anything in stone you can return anything there any ways I was all about the Ipod its a great music player and i think that is one of the best things apple has done in a long time I meen go anywhere and see if you can look around a store and not find something for your Ipod but my point is when i went to Walmart and droped the 249.99 down on the Zune I did it only to test it out and see how many real big changes there was between the Zune and Ipod there really was and after using it for a day im real impressed with MS new toy its going to give Apple a run for its money the FM radio is nice to have when bored of hearing my same old music over and over gives me something to play with also the Zune software makes the transfer of pics video and music fast and easy yes Itunes can do the hole music and photo but when it comes to video on the ipod it lacks plus the Zune battery is sick where if i was using my Ipod I could get only part way done with a movie before my battery was ready for a new charge the Zune allows you to not only finish your movie but still have time to do other stuff sense the battery lasts 12 hours for music and 4 and a hafe using video Ill be honest with every one I love Linux and would ues Linux all the time but there are just some stuff you cant do with out MS so I had to check what i thought would be a very sad joke of an mp3 player made by them but after using it im having A real hard time deciding if I still want to take it back of keep it the sound is great could just be the set of headphones that comes with it but it seems so much more crisp and the screen is so much nicer then the Ipod there are things that every one will hate about it and same for Ipod but not every one can use Linux and not evrey one Can install doom on there Ipod ya know so what MS has doen is made a very nice music player with a great battery and and nice screen and made it easy for people to use also the ugly shell every one is talking about is what in the long run will keep the Zune playing longer then the Ipod the plastic shell is nice and will take agood beating so for once im giving MS hats off for this one.
P.S The Reason the wireless did not work when you and the people at Best Buy played with it is do to the fact the Zune must have its software set up and then updated after that the wireless works every easy just go to the song and click send song the Zune will then look for a Zune near by to link with
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|I have a question...
Whilst DRM-ed files auto-delete after 3 days / 3 plays (which ever happens first) when sent to another Zune via wireless, does the same happen with non-DRMed files?
eg. My band makes our own sample track, non-DRM-ed to get some exposure. If it vanishes after few days, we're going to look kind of stupid.
Does anyone know this answer yet?
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|Hey Frostek You can make what you want and it will stay on what ever Zune it is one what goes away is the songs from Zune's download site witch is just for you to try them and if you like then you go back to there site and buy the song any music you already own stays there so what ever you send to people will stay does this answer anything for ya
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|My local ccity had 39 of them and the display was up too...
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|"My attempts were to no avail as well. We could not figure out how to share songs even after 20 minutes of going through the menus and trying every single option."
Seems painfully easy here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jpHzQYKDlWU
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|Interestingly enough, it looks like I called it regarding women being a big fan of the brown Zune. Me? I'd probably get a black one, but it is interesting to note that after all of the backlash from BN readers about the brown, it seems MS may have hit the market on the head.
I do think it is interesting that the one store had sold 10-15 already given there hasn't been a great deal of TV marketing about the Zune (unless I've been missing them by fastforwarding through them on Tivo haha), in a town such as Reading, PA. I'd like to hear how sales went in places such as NYC, Seattle/Redmond, Chicago, and LA.
I do like the piece though. A great attempt at branching out to get some perspective and reading more than just sales reports. Well done!
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|I seen a few ads on TV and in movie theatres. Not much, though, you're right.
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|Actually, it seems both women were iPod haters. Their decision to buy brown may have more to do with a desire to spite Apple just that much more than anything to do with the color actually being appealing.
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|Sorry, but that makes no sense. Do you really think hatred of an iPod is going to cause someone to pick a color? The brown Zune has an advantage because there is no brown iPod, and brown is a wardrobe staple. Can you imagine yourself saying "I hate the iPod, so I am going to buy a brown Zune...not just any Zune, but a brown one to show my hatred for iPod"?
If anything it could be so that when people see it, they know it IS NOT an iPod. Clever on many levels for Microsoft to have that color.
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|Someone should have told them black is more slimming... ;-)
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|I really want a Zune. I'm thinking about selling my black 60GB ipod. The reason? I'm not too nuts about paying 99 cents a song and then only being able to play it on a ipod in the future. Not only that but I may not even like the song once I feel it is played out. I don't own any digital music. I own some CDs and I "pirate" a lot as well. Anyway that's me, so I like the $15 a month model (price of one CD) where I can play what a want, when I want and when someday I decide to get another plan I can just cancel my subscription and move on without being stuck to that device because all my music only works there. So that really appeals to me.
Oh and what color will I get if I end up going through with it? Brown. Yup, brown -- brown is hot.
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|Are you a plant?
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|No. Are you looking to get flamed?
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|Oh puleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze flame ME you little twit.
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|plant!
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|umm its been less then a day since the zune launched and people have the balls to write about sales reports according to what they see in local stores?
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|Considering the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 3 were/will be impossible to find on their launch day, it's quite interesting to see how well the Zune will take off.
Obviously, it's not selling out like the first video iPod and iPod nano did on their launch day.
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|Your comparing apples to oranges though. Ipod Video and Ipod Nano both had already an established name in the Ipod itself.
The sales that should be comparable are the ones from the First generation Ipod.
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|Absolutely... interesting but a serious lack of definitive data. This is more of an indictment of the minwage monkeys at the big box stores than anything Zune...
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|If I remember correct, iPod didn't take off until G4 AND ported to Windows.
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|First of all....you can't compare it to the video ipods, you have to compare it to the originals. Second of all, Ipods have a name and a cult Apple following. Something MS doesn't have.
Also, if you remember correctly, Ipods weren't big initially. And their boom came when the video ipods and promises of TV shows/Movies on your Ipod came to light.
Finally....where did an Ipod ever sell out? I live in DC (busy place) where my buddy works at best buy and no ipods have ever sold out. I got one for my litte cousin just fine on the very next day actually.
The only electronics that sell like that are consoles.
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|Ya - the real take-off was Windows compatibility, far and away.
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|When are you going to be able to sync music via wireless. This is the main reason I am holding off on purchasing one.
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