Zune takes #2 spot in retail launch week

Sandisk, move over buddy, there's a new gun in town. According to NPD's weekly point of sale data collections (which, as we understand it, cull aggregate sales figures from all the top electronics retailers), during the Zune's launch week Microsoft captured a 9% unit share and a 13% dollar share (total cash spent) in the portable media device space. (Comparatively, Apple's iPod range snagged 63% unit share and $72.5 percent dollar share.) Now granted, this figure should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Not because of its accuracy -- since we're quite sure it's totally accurate -- but because a week spent #2 in unit share does not make a device #2 in market share, not by a long shot. Furthermore, those retail figures do not include Apple stores, where droves of customers flock to purchase their iPods, and more importantly, because that's launch week and any new device (especially one so hyped as the Zune) will almost always set its sales records during its week of launch. In other words: sorry Zune fanboys, this is going to be a war of attrition, and while launch week numbers might foretell the Zune's place in the not too distant future, they shouldn't be used as hard and fast figures for today's split up of the market.

[KayGee @ Nov 29th 2006 6:28PM]

Wonder if this will get the same press....
Next week, when MS falls to #4 again, behind SanDisk and Creative.

[Aaron @ Nov 29th 2006 7:39PM]

Ryan..you are the worst Ipod fanboy ever.

[Ryan Block @ Nov 30th 2006 1:47AM]

Ha, that's funny -- you guys always say that. And when I'm hard on iPods, the Creative (and now Zune) fans harsh on me. Honestly I think all these products don't pass muster, I wish Rio were still around!

[Yuvamani @ Nov 29th 2006 6:47PM]

Are you guys sure this is accurate? Zune's rankings in the amazon best seller lists have been tawdry. Other data like a survey of sales reps - Many of whom did not know about the zune although their store stocked it, point otherwise ...

The official zune blog does says that sales have met expectations, But even then I am not too sure the zune is doing well. On launch day I was a circuit city in Bellevue (ms heartland) and I saw 3 customers pass over the zune. Forget about the iPod, One actually bought a samsung player after checking out the zune !

Honestly even though my political leanings are white. I did not expect the apathy to the Zune launch.

[Collin @ Dec 7th 2006 1:45AM]

That is Amazon. I bought from buy.com and then another one from K-Mart. I buy a lot online but I didn't feel like waiting for delivery and only went to buy.com because I couldn't get out of work and I stopped at Frys which was a week slow on stocking them. By the way when I went to Fys last night the shelves were not empty but there was certainly evidence of more then half their stock being stripped. I wouldhave taken one from them had I not already bought myself and my dad one.

[lyl545646 @ Nov 29th 2006 6:43PM]

I know I bought one (black color), LOVE IT.

[J @ Nov 29th 2006 7:04PM]

Haha this is great
"I know I bought one (black color), LOVE IT."
So you know that it is number two in sales because you bought one?

[rob @ Nov 29th 2006 9:23PM]

the zune wont pass the ipod but it will stay at number 2....people fall in love with the zune easily. I brought mine to school before thanksgiving break and showed people then when i came back 2 of my friends got one because they liked it so much. I can get in the social now yippeee (even though there are only 3 in it as of now)

[Gothmog @ Nov 29th 2006 6:47PM]

Considering that I bought and then returned one, b/c the software was tragically buggy. So doubt it'll be #2 in following weeks.

'mog

[Illuminated One @ Nov 29th 2006 11:31PM]

Move over Ipod, a new king has arrived.

[petenpepsi @ Nov 29th 2006 6:51PM]

I know people will bash Zune and almost anything that isn't Ipod, but I appreciate that manufacturers are trying and not just giving up to all things I-(fill in the blank). Where would we be technologically if no one tried after the first of anything came out?

[James @ Nov 29th 2006 7:38PM]

A couple of friends of mine have Zunes - and I'm a big fan of the interface! Lots of complaints about the Zune Marketplace software, but the device itself is a joy to use.

I'm baffled that there are so many negative (read: hateful) comments throughout Engadget about a player that really does have some great things going for it. Microsoft will eventually hammer out the major problems with the desktop software - and once they offer larger capacity players, I'm very likely to pick one up myself.

Cool.

[Ben @ Jan 23rd 2007 4:33AM]

James, the reason people hate it so much is because it's almost a complete rip-off of the iPod and they really lent no ingenuity to it. All they did was pretty much take the drawings of the iPod and very slighty change a few of the dimensions. The Creative Zen:M was very much like the iPod but at least they didn't add some clickwheel look-a-like-but-not-really-cuz-it-doesn't-really-click to the front of it, but kinda changed things up.

Also its pastime of Apple fanboys. What better way to spend a day than going to Wngagdet and bashing M$ and Windoze. We're with Steve Jobs and we're fighting, man. We're rebels and we're fighting Big Brother.

Alright, fellow fanboys, meet me over at Gizmodo. We can't let up or they'll win. We can't give up. All hail Steve Jobs. Now let's recite the Pledge of Allegiance... "I pledge my allegiance to the logo of Apple, Inc and to innovation for which it stands. One nation under Jobs, indivisible with ingenuity and amazingness for all."

Alright, now move out.

[raichu @ Nov 29th 2006 6:57PM]

Amazon numbers represent ONLY Amazon sales, which is a VERY SMALL portion of total vendors selling Zune. Any statistics business student will tell you that just looking at Amazon rankings is poor judgment. Zune is sold at over 30,000 retail outlets across the country. One website selling Zune is an incredibly poor way to judge Zune's overall ranking and sales.

[iLLW!L @ Nov 29th 2006 7:07PM]

Amazon's Zune sales make up more than 1/30,000th of total Zune sales.

Consider also that we are comparing Amazon Sales Rank to Amazon Sales Rank, just at different time frames.

A statistics business student worth their weight would tell you that the trend of Amazon Sales Ranking can generate interest for further analysis; one shouldn't dismiss it because it is one of many outlets.

Unfortunatly, we can't see the raw numbers behind the Sales Rankings (i.e. what is the difference in sales volume between #1 and #2)

[Vanillacide @ Nov 29th 2006 6:58PM]

The 9% unit share number is units shipped to retailers, it is not units sold.

And it's numbers for the first, launch, week.

One might expect iPods to convert all those units shipped to sales, but there are lots of stories of unsold Zunes in Best Buy etc.

Anyone who's looked at Amazon's MP3 player says can see that Black Zune fell well below SanDisk, Creative Zen, etal. White and Brown Zune simply dropped off the bottom of the list.

[Molly C @ Nov 29th 2006 7:03PM]

"The 9% unit share number is units shipped to retailers, it is not units sold. "

No, NPD measures customer sales, not shipments to retailers. I know this from following the Game Console Sales Wars waged on the various video game forums over the years. ;-)

[BiG� @ Nov 29th 2006 8:17PM]

The report was commissioned and released by Redmond. No wonders that they are suddenly second ;-)

[GJP303 @ Nov 29th 2006 7:02PM]

i know people think the zune is a very nice player and all but, you got to admit, they got that big of market share by all the buzz the device had. The creative and sandisk had to earn it by great devices.

[Frederick Littles @ Nov 30th 2006 11:34AM]

I think the Zune is a pretty decent music player...It has alot of features I was looking for. I didn't have a problem installing the software at all. Everything wen rather smoothly. After reading some of the post here... Many didn't give or want give the Zune a chance. I have 2 Ipods and I have yet to pick them up since getting the Zune!! From intergrating between my laptop and desktop to the 360 have been an enjoyable experience. But the feature I like the most have been the FM Tuner. This is a great little player. Plus this little thing refuse the let me scratch it up like the ipod does.

[lyl545646 @ Nov 29th 2006 7:09PM]

Of course not, in fact, I really don't care how Zune's sell is.

[jmatt @ Nov 29th 2006 7:07PM]

raichu, hate to say it, but that's like saying if you buy music from Wal-Mart it won't cout towards total sales since it's only a chain store. It's the #1 retailer of music! Amazon is huge, and most of the places selling the Zune don't specalize in music or gadgets like GameStop or EB Games. If the Zune is at 300,000, but only 60,000 of those sell electronics mildly well, then do the other 240,000 matter? Not really.

[jesse @ Nov 29th 2006 7:12PM]

Also NPD does not collect data from every company, one huge company they leave out is walmart.

[JjeSs. @ Nov 29th 2006 10:06PM]

"Apple's iPod range snagged 63% unit share and $72.5 percent dollar share."

72 dollar percent?
That is all.
*winks*

[Njoli @ Nov 29th 2006 7:25PM]

Ipod fanboys and reviews say the Zune is a inferior product, guess what IT DOSEN'T MATTER. As the owner of a zune and a ipod i can tell you the as far as the hardware gose they are pretty even, I think evenchaly M$ will smarten up an relax some that DRM stuff witch would deffently put them on the same level. Always remember competition is always better for the consumer.

[Dave95 @ Nov 29th 2006 8:42PM]

Considering the BUZZ this Zune received (most Negative), I am not surprise. Do they keep track of returns?

Wake me up when Zune02.Vista.Firmware1.8099002 comes out!

[funkbass23 @ Nov 29th 2006 8:17PM]

Hey guys, how can a percentage also be a dollar amount?

"$72.5 percent dollar share"


As far as the Zune, it's buggy as hell, the software for it doesn't work quite as well as iTunes and the unit is bulky as all hell. The only thing it has going for it is the screen size and the resolution but people don't look at the screens often. Besides, it's still too small for a true video player.

Mehhh! I'd hate to say it, but there's a reason why Apple has such a high market share with the iPod, fads and group-think aside. They understand that it's all about the overall experience and integration of the hardware/software and especially the ease of use.

[CTG @ Nov 29th 2006 8:13PM]

Thank you for cutting through the bullshit, Ryan.

[coprock @ Nov 29th 2006 7:42PM]

Why do you all worry soooo much about this damn product? Some of you ipod lovin/MS haters act like you will be emasculated if MS gains even 1% of market share.

[spice3d @ Nov 30th 2006 7:42PM]

It appears that much of the dissing of the Zune, particularly the DRM handling, is incorrect according to the indepth review on ExtremeTech at http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2061973,00.asp

[perpetualtranze @ Nov 29th 2006 8:58PM]

I'm so tired of Zune bashing. I bought one the day after it came out, having been a (and very ashamed to say) iPod owner, this thing is soooo much better than the ipod. Bigger screen, scratch resistant, full album art display, and an ACTUAL built in FM tuner which tells me what station I'm listening to, and what song and artist are currently playing. The ipod scratched so easily, no radio, and you could barely see the album art not to mention videos looked like crap on it. What sets apart people who own the Zune and who own an ipod is the fact that 99.99% of people who own the ipod just have one cause everyone else is doing it and the ones who own a Zune actually care about quality and don't want to have what everyone else is having. (Please don't comment back on this comment cause I know there are a lot of hateful ipod fans out there and I only visit here every once in a while now even lesser because of the bad rep Engadget seems to enjoy putting out there against the Zune)

[mike @ Nov 29th 2006 8:34PM]

but I appreciate that manufacturers are trying and not just giving up to all things I-(fill in the blank). Where would we be technologically if no one tried after the first of anything came out?

--

Hmm.. these numbers represent retailer expectations... they must have thought MS could do anything (where have i heard that before...)

Where would we be technologically without Cupertino? Wow... wow... can you guys imagine how badly you'd be getting boned by Redmond if it weren't for MS?

[Jake @ Nov 29th 2006 7:55PM]

Oh engadget.

Did the Apple iPod have it's number one week of sales launch week? Did the xbox? I don't think so, and that's a ridiculous generalization to say that the first week is always the best, and it's downhill from there. To the contrary, a little more contact by the average consumer with the zune outside of the electronics retail store might lead to a little more acceptance, and who knows someone might buy it.

Honestly, you still sound like a bunch of apple fanboys saying that the sales numbers are portentous signs of the failure of the zune device.

[Bob Spencer @ Nov 29th 2006 8:00PM]

I don't think 1% of the country even knows what Zune is yet. All things considered I think they did pretty good.

I love my brown Zune!

[nikolas @ Nov 29th 2006 9:47PM]

"What sets apart people who own the Zune and who own an ipod is the fact that 99.99% of people who own the ipod just have one cause everyone else is doing it and the ones who own a Zune actually care about quality and don't want to have what everyone else is having."

Hyperbole, It's whats for dinner.

If the zune could play ITunes music I would buy one. I think its list of features are cool, especially the FM tuner(I haven't gotten a chance to handle one yet, so i don't know how well they are implemented). Unfortunately their music store insists on using Microsoft points(79 points = 99 cents?) and is completely unfit for release. I only bought my ipod because I really like Itunes. Music sells mp3 players.

[Penn @ Nov 30th 2006 3:07AM]

nothing can play itunes songs besides itunes...they're locked down with DRM and most users dont have the tech know-how to unlock the DRM

[CzarCruise @ Nov 30th 2006 12:15AM]

"As far as the Zune, it's buggy as hell, the software for it doesn't work quite as well as iTunes and the unit is bulky as all hell. The only thing it has going for it is the screen size and the resolution but people don't look at the screens often. Besides, it's still too small for a true video player."

I believe Itunes was very buggy when it first came out as well...if my memory serves me right, and people do look at their screens when there is something being shown on it(album art, track title, how long a song has been playing, movies) And what exactly is the definition of a "true" video player? Is it the dimensions of the screen? Because then the Ipod and Creative player wouldnt work either...

[Molly C @ Nov 30th 2006 4:45AM]

iTunes wasn't just buggy when it first came out, it was buggy just last month when the iTunes 7.0 bugfest was released. ;-)

[funkbass23 @ Nov 30th 2006 3:13PM]

You're right, in that any of these devices can be a true video player. I would personally like to see an offering from Apple or another company that corresponded with a somewhat seamless video downloading and managing software.

As far as the screen, most people who have mp3 players now including the newer iPods do not look at the screen. They clip the player on their belt and go. That's just from what I notice though.

As for iTunes being buggy, it has always had little things that have been stamped out. This has even been the case with the newest release. However, I have personally never experienced and bugs that have affected integration with the iPod. That is really what counts.

[iotashan @ Nov 30th 2006 2:32AM]

As a former NPD employee, I can also point out that they do not have any Point of Sale data for Walmart, either. Walmart stopped giving out POS data to all market research companies awhile back. Take out the Apple Store and Walmart, and the numbers for this segment become mostly useless.

[Penn @ Nov 30th 2006 3:03AM]

ms is just gearing up its marketing campaign "Zune Masters" with college students, there sending out acceptance notices this week, and participants will recieve a free zune (custome made for the program) and will attend concerts and events to promote it...kind of an interesting approach to market the device...relying on college students

[Tom @ Nov 30th 2006 3:22AM]

So the Zune was beating Sandisk for the launch week. Do those figures include the pre-orders? I'd be interested in seeing the stats for the second and third weeks? Also I know a lot of people were returning them...

But seriously competition is good in the tech world and nothing has come close to the ipod combination yet. Apart from wi-fi, good UI and a bigger screen the Zune ain't got much else going for it unfortunately.

[Molly C @ Nov 30th 2006 4:46AM]

One thing to note is that Zune is not currently competing against flashdisk players, only harddrive players. Zune's percentage in the hdd player market was over 25% during launch week.

[Gordy @ Nov 30th 2006 9:07AM]

The brown Zune will always be #2 to me.

[Asher Pat @ Nov 30th 2006 11:34AM]

It is not difficult to know whose "fanboy" the author of the article is...innit?

Dont worry Ryan, there are enough Apples around, they will keep buying the white cult wonder just to keep their Stephen Godds (and Apple invesstors) smug.

[james.kingston @ Nov 30th 2006 2:34PM]

I breathe the hot air of the Applesphere, but I can see where one might want something different to the ipod line. I've considered shopping around myself, but I'm not ready to give up either itunes (the software, not the mktplc) or the dock connector. What I don't get is why this is the one that someone would choose over the other non-ipod devices. I cannot even fathom choosing the zune over, say, the toshiba gigabeat. You're choosing a device that is equally locked into one management software package and one music store, losing the great ecosystem, and only gaining FM and the wireless nonfeature. Why not go the rest of the way and get something compatible with all the other DRM shops and which is compatible with management software that will also sync with almost all other music players?

[tekdroid @ Nov 30th 2006 5:40PM]

I like Zune coz it gives us:
*no Mass Storage mode to use the device like a regular hard drive like virtually every other player on the market
*Digital Rights Restricted embedded wirelesss sharing that really isn't - it expires
*FM Radio (another Microsoft innovation!)
*requirement to use its software and buy from its record label-approved store
*the unique ability (with every purchase of the Zune) to support the lovely record industry that have changed laws to give the customer less rights than they once had

Without Microsoft (and Apple!!!!!) there truly would be no innovation. As we all know, there are no other competitors in the market doing much more for Average Joe than these two truly underhyped corporations (I wish I could get more coverage of their products!) and competition is GOOD!!!!

[manny @ Dec 1st 2006 7:43PM]

Yea. i am an iPod user but i give every mp3 player a fair shot. working at bestbuy i have the chance to purchase and play with everyone of them pretty much. but after getting to hold the zune i soon figured out the maassive size alone forced buying this thing out of my mind, aside from all the software and hardware drawbacks.