Zune 2 in the wild, Wal-Mart style
By Paul Miller 
posted Nov 1st 2007 9:58AM
posted Nov 1st 2007 9:58AM
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Hot damn batman in a bikini!
What's with walmart deciding they're a CE heavyweight this week?
Zune2
Toshiba HDA2
350 laptop
etc.
Also, what's with the $199.94? Some cunning strategy to undercut all the $199.95 players?
"Zune 2 in the wild, Wal-Mart style"
zzz...zzz...zzz, huh?...Zune?...meh, zzz...zzz...zzz.
I don't know about Walmart, but in some stores the last digit in the price is an indicator to the sales person on how much they are allowed to dicker with sticker price to make the sale. For example, the 4 might mean "don't offer this product for less, it has a low margin", or it might actually mean "old product, sell at any opportunity". I used to work at a store and when things were on sale and the price ended in a certain digit, it meant the item was discontinued and they want you to almost give it away so that it's not left in inventory. The special digit helps so that you don't always have to retreat to the computer and can make an offer on the spot.
i sent engadget a similar display at target a few weeks ago.
I saw those at Target too, but they were made of card board.
might as well post them here...
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m83/kreg37/img075.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m83/kreg37/img076.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m83/kreg37/img077.jpg
the ones at wal-mart appear to be cardboard as well...
also, the guy who posted this on his blog seems to be sensationalizing his story with "in the wild" and "for sale" when in fact it's just a cardboard display, and there's no evidence that they're on sale other than "a sales associate told me so." no pictures of price tags or zune boxes.
maybe this is what i needed to do to get my pictures posted...
hey buddy, do you see the price tag below the 30 gb?? im not "sensationalizing" anything, im sorry your pictures didnt get posted
the 30gb zune has a price tag because it's been on sale for almost a year...
i hope i'm not sounding bitter about my pictures getting posted (i'm not). i'm merely trying to point out that this is nothing more than a cardboard display case, no new zunes for sale. the engadget headline leads you to believe otherwise...
@ Scott
The 30G is the Zune 1.
You lose.
yep.
this zune on display http://itsnotlikethat.com/wp-content/zune2two.jpg , doesnt look like the zune 1 http://itsnotlikethat.com/wp-content/zune1.gif
Craig, I did see your pictures posted on engadget. and Scott H. Selling the 30 gig zune 1 is not a zune 2, so its not "in the wild"
Actuall, Scott, they look exactly the same. Are you really that blind? The Zune 2 does not even include a 30GB model, which the price tag clearly mentions. There are only 4gb, 8gb, and 80gb models. If you get a Zune that has 30gb of storage it is a first generation device.
Notice how NONE of the other Zunes on display there have a price tag? That's because they're not for sale yet.
The new Zune line can be clearly seen on their website: http://www.zune.net and you can see that the middle navigation 'button' is much different from the fake wheel of the Zune 1s.
You can see a great comparison on Zune's website here: http://www.zune.net/en-US/meetzune/
That site also reflects the price drop of the 30gb Zunes to $199, which WalMart is advertising.
You = stupid.
"You = stupid."
haha! thanks man.
Yes, actually, my Walmart in the southwest corner of WI has the new zune2. I've been paying so little attention to this hardware that I didn't know its ship date was later. I'll see if I can get some pics.
Since when do non-working display units are considered "in the wild"? I wasn't aware that dummy hardware also has "street dates".
What's the difference between the original Zune and version 2. Other than storage increasing, of course. This is a question people. So, don't start bringing iPod nonsense or that the Zune sucks. I just want to know what advantage version 2 has over the original.
This will explain much better than I possibly could:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/02/microsofts-new-zunes-officially-in-80-8-and-4gb-sizes/
In short they are thinner and have a button that is both touch sensitive and mechanical. (Basically, this is the way they should have made the Zune in the first place.)
http://www.cliczune.com/2007/10/zune-30-vs-zune.html
Damn those are pretty.
which wal-mart? i'll totally hit it up.
And the 5 whole people planning on getting one just bought tickets to Saint Louis. Ya know if Wal-Mart keeps selling things way before they are supposed to like this they're gonna get into trouble at some point.
whats funny is they sell stuff before street dates, yet they wanna get all whiny and bitchy if their Black Friday ad is released BEFORE Nov. 19........damn if that aint the most hypocritical shite I've heard in my life
A) You lose points big time for making yet another asinine "the whole 2/3/5 people planning on getting one" joke. It's tired, leave it alone. And no, I'm not a MS fanboy; I'd rather get a new, larger-capacity replacement for the Vision:M or a high-capacity Archos that won't break my bank than a Zune 2, but beggars, choosers, and so on. It's all about the sound quality.
B) Get in trouble with whom? The manufacturers? They all know that Wal-Mart's too big to boycott, and in the capitalist world of dollars and cents that they live in, might makes right.
Makishima;
Your comments bore me. You bore me.
The main benefits are capacity, ergonomics and slightly larger glass screen (vs plastic). The software is supposed to be substantially improved, but first-gen owners are supposed to get the software upgrade.
they are ultra thin. not sure if you have ever had your hands on the first zune, but it was fat, obnoxiously thick! and apparently it supposed to have fixed the skipping problem. sharper screen, higher res album art..a bunch of fixes i think that could have been resolved with a new firmware..but you have to love the size of the new one.
they werent THAT bad...........unless you were trying to run around with it in your little pants pocket.......lol
The new firmware for this one can be used on the original. So you don't have to buy a whole new product if you just want the software fixes. What a novel idea...
Oh Microsoft.... please stop....
ultra-thin because they're cardboard
Yeah, competition sucks. Stop giving your competitors reasons to improve their product. Please help the market become a stagnant, non-innovative place, where I can only buy one type of player, that will never be improved upon sue to lack of competition.
worried your precious ipod is being over shadowed by a better product?
Hopefully Woot! will have another deal on the 30GB ones again real soon.
Yeah, I hit that but my zune came in DOA and will take another couple weeks to get replaced.
I saw the same thing at Targetr like 1 weeks ago.
It is certainly an eye catching display. I have 3 Zune's on pre-order at Amazon... wonder why they didn't just drop the old case style altogether and add a 30 GB drive into the Zune 80 casing ???
I think Microsoft will sell millions this holiday season !
Sell all the old 30's first, then move it into a new case
because they will prolly phase out the current 30s first......
I know I'm getting the 80 because the 30 isnt enough......I hate having to delete movies and add new ones all the time because I dont have room
I saw these in WalMart yesterday. There weren't any units for sale and the display units were fakes under glass.
I would like to actually pick one up to see if the feel is better.
it is! i got to go to the Seattle Zune preview and the matte finish on the Zune 4/8 feels great! they're real light and thin and the video quality is suprisingly good. they just feel high quality and sturdy when you hold it in your hard. also, the touch pad is awesome!
The Walmart in Midlothian, VA has them for sale also. It's the Walmart on Hull Street road off of Walbro Dr. in Midlothian, VA.
That red one looks awful brown.
Even if a sales associate told you the new Zunes are for sale, the register will still have a sales restriction placed on the item. Only a manager could override a restriction and I'd doubt they would do so.
I work for Wal-Mart in electronics, maybe I should just send it every random piece of info I receive? For one I know every Wal-Mart has at least 4 Wii in stock waiting for their ad date to drop.
"Only a manager could override a restriction and I'd doubt they would do so"
I used to work for Wal-Mart ISD(information systems division), and we got notifications every week of managers overriding restrictions on pre-sales, mostly on cd's, dvd's, and books, but every once in a while they would come through on devices that werent supposed to be for sale yet, or new games..so it happens frequently.
I said "doubt", there is always a chance you could get sold one, but for 99.9% of the population it's not going to happen.
Define "improved".
;)
I'm waiting for the Zune 2 software to become available so I can have a fiddle...
If i can point out the main difference between Zune 1 & Zune 2
Zune 1 was a rebadged, adapted Toshiba Gigabeat
Zune 2 is a new MS inhouse design that has touch sensitive controls and can sync with your library over wifi, killer feature in my opinion, syncing with my mediacenter by remote with no cables. Go MS about time you got something right
to clarify further... zune 30 2.0 is the zune 30 1.0 hardware with updated firmware. All zune 2.0 features are added except for the touch sensitive d-pad. The zune 30s will not start shipping with the updated firmware until the rest of the zune 2's are released. All current zune 30s with the version 1 firmware will be able to update it online to the 2.0 firmware and marketplace software.
I love my Gen 1 Zune ... one of my friends calls it my "Brick" and another friend calls it my "turd" because i bought a brown one.
There isn't another mp3 player out there i'd even consider replacing it with ... .
if iTunes had a subscription service then maybe i'd think about the cool iPod Touch.
I just went to the Walmart in Fishers, IN and they do have the new zunes as well as the Car Pack, they won't however sell it until the release date on November 13 so looks like we'll all just have to wait!
you should have posted a picture.
my local walmart has those displays too, theyre just cardboard (or something like that)
They're just a display that Microsoft put out. Those aren't even functional Zune, even the 30GB model is quite literally a brick. And there's nothing that says any Walmarts have any in stock, unless they got some since Sunday.
Yeah, I work at Circuit City, and we put up a very similar display last week. They are plastic, and they aren’t even the right size.
We don’t even have them in our warehouse yet
I saw this same display at Target in Redmond last week.
Man the Zune Blows, only loser dorks would buy that piece of shit, get social & move out of your parents basement…lol
Oh yeah Wal-Mart blows too
Hey guys, just visited a Saint Louis location in Brentwood, MO to confirm that these are just displays in a kiosk and that they are not selling any of the Zune 2 products yet. I will also add that what you are seeing aren't even life size demos but thin metal plates with stickers on them.
When I asked about the availability then confirmed what we already knew by stating "They ain't even on the web site yet".