Brown Zune now Amazon's #1-selling DAP
By Nilay Patel 
posted November 13th 2007 2:12PM
posted November 13th 2007 2:12PM
[Thanks, Marc]
posted November 13th 2007 2:12PM
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When people say the never see a Zune in public I can say I rarely see iPods in public and have only seen one actual iPhone.
What I do see a lot of are earbuds, mostly white but a lot of black.
I'm actually tempted to pick one up. My Gen3 Ipod 10GB is pretty much dead and I'd like something for the drive in to the office. One thing I have trouble finding info about is the Wifi capabilities of the Zune. If I can browse like the (the touch or iPhone) then I may just pick it up. If not then I'll hold out for the Gen2 iPhone since I prefer to carry only one device. The touch's capabilities vs. price is not worth the investment, IMO.
mmmmmmm chocolate.
The resale/refurb value of the iPod is much higher than the Zune (sort of like the choice between buying a Toyota Camry vs. a Chevy Malibu).
I guess if all you care about is resale value, and not function, then the iPod is for you.
there twice as much on amazon.co.uk :(
How exactly can this be number one, I have seen exactly 1 of these in the real world, and it was broken.
Hooray for Brown skins devices and people! Let's celebrate!
Hooray for Brown skins devices and people! Let's celebrate!
This is not the ugliest MP3 player I've ever seen, but very close to it. I guess the bottom line is that people who truly care about style and design do not mind paying a few dollars more for the iPod. This Zune will sell simply because of it's price. It's the same concept when comparing Microsoft and Apple desktops.
I love my brown Zune! And now with podcasting support I love it even more.
If you account for the sheer varieties of ipods (different capacities, models, colors) Ipods are still outselling Zunes at Amazon right now.
Good for Microsoft I knew that they could do it. 30GB is the perfect size and at under $100 can you really complain? But, I'll still take my iPod+iTunes any day. From the same page on Amazon Apple has six of the top 10 mp3 players and thirteen out of the top20.
Damn, thats cheap, I might get one.
The trampy Windoze gadget lovers have united to take full advantage of the throat cutting sale on the POOPZUNE. Enjoy your chocolate bricks of failure. Don't forget to squirt!!
Why do people reffer to the brown Zune as Poop? I call my Chocolate! (It is pretty close to the color of a Hershey bar!)
Hah the funny thing about that B.A is that i guarantee that more ipods fail than zunes.
I worked at best buy and circuit city and we would get 4-10 ipods a day in that had bad batteries or bad hard drives that had to be sent off to be fixed(sad folder). I know ill get flamed for this because this is the Macboy Utopia but oh well.
Im not saying the zune has better options than new ipods etc. But i know its very reliable. All of the computer techs bought zunes or sansas because there were so many failed ipods streaming through the doors. None of us have had any problems thus far (2 years).
And with this new firmware zune owners get for free that includes wireless syncing, how can you go wrong? especially at this price?
@Charlie J
But I bet there were 10x as many ipods sold, hence the 10x more coming in for fixing.. ?
Zune is USA only thing right? lol!
@psxp
You are correct, im sure it does account for some of it. But as a former ipod owner i experience horrible reliability first hand. Battery went twice and hard drive went once. And i only owned the ipod for 6 months. To me this is completely unacceptable.
Yes it was cool, and the interface was great, but if it breaks all the time then that doesnt really matter.
If you are happy with your ipods im fine, not here to start a fight.
I'm just tired of people saying that zunes are so unreliable and horrible when they really have no basis for the comments at all.
Most have never even looked at a zune. they are just a MS hating apple fanboys who like to flame bait.
Maybe the ipod is as reliable as the zune and i just had bad luck. but i know that the zune isnt of poorer quality.
Brown Zune FTW. I wouldn't give it up and I'm a little disappointed they got rid of it for the new generation. In real life it looks like a milk chocolate bar... albeit with a tinge of green on the sides. So a moldy chocolate bar?
Where are the $80.00 brown mp3 players? All I see on Amazon are the $139.00 brown mp3 players. $139.00 is not $80.00 and brown mp3 players? Where are these brown mp3 players at? Where are the $80.00 ones not the $139.00 ones. The brown mp3 players. Where? Brown. Mp3. Players. The $80.00 ones. Phhht. Forget it.
30gb for $89.99 is hard to beat.
Since the Zune was announced, I've been in the school of thought that they will sell really really well if they are somewhere around half the cost of a competitive iPod. ...that's about the only hope MS has of moving these things in any significant numbers.
i bought the brown zune from buy.com for $89 with free shipping after using google checkout...mine JUST shipped last friday so i'm sure you'll be able to get one from there instead of amazon....these are brand new ones not reburb'd ones that woot sells...
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203171424
i wasn't interested in the zune either but for $89? can't beat that deal.
The benefits of a 2nd Gen Zune over an iPod are numerous now.
1. Bigger Screen (3.2" to 2.5")
2. FM Radio Included
3. Wireless updating of Zune
4. Wireless sharing of music/playlists
The only reason holding me back is that the zune software isn't too useful (no smart playlists, limited sorting options, etc) and that you can't use it natively on the mac. Otherwise I'd definitely go out and buy one.
All I could think of is a floater.
If only MS where smart enough to offer a Linux client. Just MHO, but I think a lot of fellow Linuxen prefer non-Apple DAPS - even one from MS if it would run under Linux.
I order my Brown Zune from Costco a few weeks ago for $99(I'd rather pay the extra $10 cause I trust Costco more than Amazon or "Woot")and I can't wait to get it. I saw one at Ebgames and it looks preatty good......I would or pefered the blck one, but hey, it's not as bad as some of you are making it out to be.
I'd like to see one of those manufacturing cost analyses for the Zune. I wonder how much it costs Microsoft to put one together? It can't be much less than $90. I would totally buy one if I knew I was paying less than the cost to manufacture.
The best thing about this article is that the Microsoft-zealots are too busy foaming over the Apple articles to post incessantly here.
Zune 8 is at the 52nd spot. That's the best performing of the flash Zunes. However, the Zune 80, which isn't released yet, is doing quite well at the number 6 spot, and the other last-gen Zunes are sprinkled throughout. So far it looks like Zune buyers want the hard-drive based models.
So am I the only one who is f'ing tired of apple fanboys either saying anything non-apple sucks or saying that engadget loves microsoft because they 'post so often' about them? in the past week there has been maybe five or six zune related posts, and that's because a new one just came out. go look back when any ipod was released and see how often they talk about them.
and yes i do like the 'zunes suck and they'll break' and all this. because they've probably used one extensively. meanwhile, my old ipod, which i babied, slowly died, eventually ending with it only being able to be charged on my computer, and then holding a half hour or so charge. oh yeah and the resetting it every few minutes. fun.
i bought a zune a few weeks ago and i freaking love it. mainly i bought it because my ipod was basically worthless and the zune was super cheap. but i actually really like it. and the sound quality is ten times better - like going from cd to vinyl. the spatial separation and presence was surprising.
and everyone i've show it to, including big ipod fans, were pleasantly surprised. the only thing that sucked about the zune was the software, which they've basically completely fixed with the new version.
and as far as the "manufacturing cost analysis" thing, what about the ipod? the classic hasn't really changed in six years, so why is it still so expensive?