Zune ill; at Microsoft a head rolls
No matter what the happy press releases from Microsoft tell us about the incredible success of Zune and how it met all sales expectations only better and similar nonsense the fact is that it is viewed by everyone else as a failure. A flop. A dead duck.
Can it be revived? Perhaps. Possibly. Maybe.
The first thing to do is find a scapegoat but make sure the world does not know. So Bryan Lee, a corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, to use the Shakespearean phrase, ‘exits left pursued by bear’ and we are told it was for personal reasons and ‘absolutely not’ related to sales of the Zune music player.
Certainly not. Nothing to do with it.
The fact that Apple with iPod still has 85 percent of the hard-drive-based MP3 player market matters not. And Zune has possibly less than 10 percent of the market.
Microsoft has said it expects to sell one million units in the financial year that ends June 30. Great expectations.
Bryan Lee was the guy who did the marketing while another corporate vice-president, J Allard, was responsible for the listless and hapless design. Now Allard is taking over Lee’s duties which you might think of as piling Ossa on Pelion.
Molly O’Donnell, a flack for the division said that Bryan Lee ‘felt there was never a great time’ to leave Microsoft, but that ‘after reaching this milestone, he’s going to leave the company and pursue other things at this time.’ And like all well-trained flacks, kept her face straight while saying it.
Van Baker, an industry analyst with Gartner, saw Microsoft’s announcement Wednesday as ‘clearly a sign of trouble in Zune-land.’
Now the word is Microsoft plans a Zune phone to launch next Christmas. If at first you don’t succeed, bend over and get kicked again. The question is: would you prefer a Zune-phone or an iPhone in your Christmas stocking. Quite so.
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February 4th, 2007
Probably less than 10 percent? What press releases have you been smoking? It’s probably closer to less than .1 %. The only people who bought these things were confused grandparents and an escaped mental patient in Canton, Ohio.
Pulliam
February 4th, 2007
Plainly your expertise in this area is greater than mine and greater than that of the Microsoft PR — which, in truth, would not be difficult. I have to experience of Canton, Ohio, nor whether it contains more deranged people than, say, Sydney. I would be willing to listen to a good argument for either side.
February 6th, 2007
“Zune Phone” doesn’t exist, officially, yet an outsourcer in the Philippines looks to be grabbing credit for testing a gadget that sure sounds like it.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/11194
September 11th, 2011
Oh, a wonderful write-up! I have no clue how you were able to say this article..it’d take me long hours. Well worth it though, I’d suspect. Have you considered selling advertising space on your website?