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Zune to Be Forgotten

January 24, 2009 at 12:00 am PT

Overlooked in the carnage of Microsoft’s second quarter was the performance of the company’s Zune platform. Which was, quite simply, atrocious. Seems that $10 to $20 holiday discount didn’t do much good at all.

According to Microsoft’s latest 10-Q, “Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million or 54 percent reflecting a decrease in device sales.”

A precipitous decline. And one that stands in stark contrast to the record 22,727,000 iPods Apple (AAPL) shipped during its latest quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Can’t really blame this one on the economy, can we Microsoft (MSFT)?

Tagged with: Apple, iPod, John Paczkowski, Microsoft, Zune

comments so far. Add yours.

Stephen Gerard

What Microsoft needs to do is pronounce the Zune dead long after it was removed from life support. And this, despite their numerous Zune apologists.

Zuneophiles need to give it up — and there are so many of them on the blogosphere, many more than people who actually own the ill-conceived device. How does that happen? More people write glowing love letters about their Zunes than people who actually own them.

It’s difficult to let go of someone important in our lives once they’ve died. But the fact is, the sooner you begin the grieving process, the better off you’ll be in the long run.
Sheila Friedman

The Zune may be dead and that would be a shame. Most people I know have never even heard of “Zune”. What is wrong with MS? They pay a fortune for marketing but they hire idiots to do the work. The few ads I have seen for the Zune are so busy trying to be edgy that they hardly bother to mention what the product is or what’s its features are. When will their marketing team learn the KISS rule? Sadly,although the Zune is better than the I-Pod, but it doesn’t stand a chance.