Microsoft says Zune to sell for $249
Microsoft Corp said Thursday its Zune digital media player will be sold at relatively the same price as Apple Computer's new 30GB video-enabled iPod and admitted that it will lose money on each sale as a result.
The Zune, which also comes with 30GB of storage, will retail for $249.99 (about 99 cents more than the iPod) when it goes on sale Nov. 14. Songs available for download at the Zune Marketplace service will cost about 99 cents a song, on par with prices at Apple's iTunes, Microsoft told Reuters.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker also told the media outlet that it needed to put a comparable price on Zune, even if it meant suffering a loss from the device's sales this holiday season.
"We had to look at what was in the market and offer a competitive price," said Scott Erickson, Microsoft's senior director of product marketing for Zune. "We're not going to be profitable this holiday but the Zune project is a multiyear strategy."
Microsoft has said it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the next several years in a bid to catch Apple's iPod.
The Zune player is the first step in creating a new brand of portable devices, the company has said, adding that a Zune phone is also in the works.
The Zune, which also comes with 30GB of storage, will retail for $249.99 (about 99 cents more than the iPod) when it goes on sale Nov. 14. Songs available for download at the Zune Marketplace service will cost about 99 cents a song, on par with prices at Apple's iTunes, Microsoft told Reuters.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker also told the media outlet that it needed to put a comparable price on Zune, even if it meant suffering a loss from the device's sales this holiday season.
"We had to look at what was in the market and offer a competitive price," said Scott Erickson, Microsoft's senior director of product marketing for Zune. "We're not going to be profitable this holiday but the Zune project is a multiyear strategy."
Microsoft has said it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the next several years in a bid to catch Apple's iPod.
The Zune player is the first step in creating a new brand of portable devices, the company has said, adding that a Zune phone is also in the works.
Comments
Consumers should be kissing Apple's and Nintendo's collective asses for making Sony and MS sell their products cheaper than they can make them.
It's just sad that MS and Sony are trying to grab market share by throwing money at the problem.
What's the equivalent of software to the Zune? Music that they'll sell for 99 cents?
Last I heard, Apple was barely breaking even with music sold through iTMS. Apple's business model works ONLY because they rake in the money through hardware sales.
So let me get this straight. MS loses money on each Zune they sell. They will also only break even, if not lose money, on each song they sell through their service.
Sniff-sniff... do I smell failure in the air?
Note that I think that Apple ought not to do something like this because then M$ might try to claim that Apple can sell for a lower price because they have a lower quality player than Zune. None of us would believe it, but what about everyone else?
So let me get this straight. MS loses money on each Zune they sell. They will also only break even, if not lose money, on each song they sell through their service.
Sniff-sniff... do I smell failure in the air?
Perhaps it's the smell of a share-holder's revolt when they realise that there is no profitability anywhere to be found?
What a screamingly horrible bit of crap this zune thing is!
How can any company seriously think that sending this thing out to fight the Goliath that is iPod has any chance of success?
Honestly, who here thinks M$ just set themselves up for one giant kick in the nuts when Apple release the updated, real video iPod - that does everything the zune chunk does and more, sells for less and is waaaaaay cooler to own?
And M$ are releasing a zune phone? HA HA HA HA! Hang on a second, I think I'm gonna vomit from laughing too hard... I can just imagine the phone thing they'll release: no signal strength, 30 minute talk time, at least 2 security updates a week and it'll hang up on you when you least expect it. That and the fact that it'll only be available in 'avocado'.
These clowns just can't get anything right. It's gotten to the point where I'm thinking that Apple secretly bought out M$ a couple of years ago and are deliberately making crap products to make Apple look good!
Let's recap the zune hi-points:
It's available in brown.
It's got wi-fi so it's battery life will suck.
It's larger than the same capacity iPod.
It's only available for PC
They'll lose money on every unit sold.
In short, they're making a bad product and selling it at a loss?
Brilliant.
What I don't understand is how does Apple make so much money on this but Microsoft can't?
Volume. Apple buys things in quantities with multi-year contracts that Microsoft can't (yet) match. That's why Microsoft thinks they can still pull this off... the theory is that once they get the volume up, the costs will decrease to the point where they break even. Of course, it hasn't worked with the XBox and that has hugely profitable game licenses behind it, so I personally think they're on crack and wouldn't want to own any MSFT stock just now.
<sarcasm>Microsoft has a rich history of making technology friendly to the consumer.</sarcasm>
$199 for the 30gb iPod
$249 for the 80gb iPod
$299 for coming Video iPod
Those prices are high enough for the product not to be seen as a commodity, but low enough to kill Microsoft's Zune initiative.
Though Apple has a more successful product now, Microsoft can afford to lose billions for years to come in hopes of dominating this space in the future ex. xbox.
Apple can't afford to lose ground here.
lol.
Microsoft is probably gonna try hard, and they'll probably stir the market if they manage to keep up for the number of years required.
Brown - It may not be attractive to you but it atleast is something different. If you were looking for a white mp3 player would you choose the ipod or the zune? Same for black, but if you 'really' wanted a brown one then the zune is the player of choice. I'm sure they did some research and found that it might look nicer for people with retro components sitting on a bookshelf.
Wifi - It only enables Wifi when you are using it to transfer songs between zune players. So battery life is not a factor if you aren't using the feature. I personally doubt I would use it much but it would be nice to have since there is no downside for those times when you aren't using it.
Larger - I haven't seen one in person but the size seems comparable considering the increase in screen size. That said - I would bet that Apple's true video ipod will still be as sleek as the current ipods yet have the bigger screen.
PC Only - I doubt they feel like they would miss out on any sales from Mac and Linux users so is this really going to impact the sales for the zune?
Am I interested in a zune? No. But that doesn't mean it will fail.
Let's recap the zune hi-points:
It's available in brown.
It's got wi-fi so it's battery life will suck.
It's larger than the same capacity iPod.
It's only available for PC
They'll lose money on every unit sold.
In short, they're making a bad product and selling it at a loss?
Brilliant.
They've got a lot of catch-up work to do. Xbox 360 shows their capability to do exactly that, but sometimes I wonder if MS realizes it's not the 1900's anymore, and that they're up against a totally new Apple that has mastered its market - at least for now.
Is there an MS product that isn't a loss-leader besides Windows and Office? I can't believe MS is still racking in the cash every quarter with so many loss-leaders.
It seems as though Microsoft (a software company) has some trouble being profitable in their hardware efforts. This situation is (retardedly) exacerbated by the fact that the Zune is not even made by Microsoft, it's a Toshiba product. Are they buying these things from Toshiba for more than they sell them for?
Jesus wept!
What a screamingly horrible bit of crap this zune thing is!
How can any company seriously think that sending this thing out to fight the Goliath that is iPod has any chance of success?
Honestly, who here thinks M$ just set themselves up for one giant kick in the nuts when Apple release the updated, real video iPod - that does everything the zune chunk does and more, sells for less and is waaaaaay cooler to own?
btw:
apple is TEH DOOMED!!!