Gamestop ain't your Zunestop
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted May 23rd 2008 2:05PM
posted May 23rd 2008 2:05PM
"We have a set of great retail partnerships that give Zune a strong presence at retail including Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others. We will continue to invest in deep retail partnerships, and have seen good momentum online and at retail over the last few months including a great response to our recent Spring Update. We're looking forward to a continued strong presence at retail with our partners."
We can't help but thinking better Xbox integration could've gone a long way, but perhaps it was just never meant to be.
I guess people don't just don't buy mp3 players at Gamestop lol
i cant remember the time my player played a mp3...i use wma's....
ive been in gamestop a couple times looking for zune stuff, and Zune has no presence in any of the stores i have been in, they apparently keep all of the Zune stuff in the back room and get it out upon request. So no real loss here for Zune.
ha ha ha ha!! Best picture I've seen all day on the interwebs!!!
Truthfully, there's nothing new here. As far as I know, Gamestops have never updated their displays to show the second-generation Zunes, so they were never really promoting the product in the first place.
"sales will continue at Gamestop.com until stock is depleted"
...really no loss for Microsoft, the Zunes they have will be in stock for at least the next 3 to 5 years. So it'll be like they never left.
Hahahaha, best comment yet.
and Zune when translated to Hebrew is the "F" word, lol So basically MS is giving Zune owners the middle finger.
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/5051/061018zune/
only if you're a jew
i fear for the zune so much, its such a great product, way better than the iPod! but no where near as popular.It needs to be cross platform, with growing Mac sales (lets not go there) and a lot of people considering switching over, people are affriad to buy a zune, if they end up getting a mac, they are screwed (for the record, im a mac user, and i work it out, its just a pain in the arse.).
Yeah zunes are so much better. haha. yeah right. try again. Im replying to your comment on an iPod. reply to mine from your little zune then I'll be impressed.
Btw I'm also listening to music. Haha. multi-tasking...
Mac owners are still a small segment of the market-- and much, much fewer when you consider that most of them would probably never be interested in a Microsoft product.
As a Zune owner, I'd be annoyed if MS decided to pour programming resources into Zune software for the Mac. I just don't see the potential payoff being worth the time & money involved.
Funny. I thought Mac users always bragged that Windows could work on a Mac, so that automatically made it a great reason to buy. And that it was oh-so fast. So why don't Mac users just use Boot Camp, install Windows, and do their Zune syncing from there?
who and what is Zune?....Sounds like a candybar i can eat.
Man that sucks i was gonna buy a zune, now i'm having second thoughts since everyone is dropping them. those ipod whinners are probably laughing now. Where are all those stupid zune bashers?
I agree that the Zune was "...a poor fit with its "product mix."" WTF right from the start on that one.
Microsoft should rethink their whole marketing of the Zune and go right for their core audience, "So do you blindly hate Apple as a corporation and all of their products for no apparent reason? Here. Buy this crap!"
I really think it would have been smart to allow your Zune to charge via your 360 or sync via your 360. I know I would have bought an 80 gb had they promised a feature like that.
You can charge and Sync your Zune from an Xbox360.... The USB is powered so it will charge, and if your computer is on it can sync wirelessly.
WaPo article states:
Microsoft has sold only 2 million Zune's since it launched the device in November, 2006. Apple, in contrast, sold 10.6 million iPods last quarter.
Stores with limited shelf space are not going to bother selling an item when a competing item outsells it 30:1. It's had well over a year to gain traction, and retailers are starting to pull the plug. Duh. Those Zune displays are a useless waste of space as far as the store is concerned. Watch other retailers follow suit as they,, too, look at the numbers. It's a crowded market with no room for failures.
There is another related bit of informed opinion, and I don't even care for the guy....
Kill the Zune, Microsoft
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz May 23, 2008
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2008/05/23/kill-the-zune-microsoft.aspx
If you're one of the roughly 2 million buyers of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) gutsy portable media player over the past two years, you won't like me today. I'm suggesting a mercy killing for the Zune -- but please, hear me out.
I have nothing against the device. The original model brought something new to the table with its social sharing. Last year's upgrade offered head-nodding improvements. However, now that even GameStop (NYSE: GME) is getting out of the Zune-selling business, isn't it just a matter of time before the player itself becomes a museum piece?
GameStop may not seem like an apt yardstick for the Zune's fortunes, but consider this:
1.GameStop sells a ton of Xbox 360 systems and games, so it's a hotbed of Microsoft fans.
2.The chain proudly sells used games and gear. If a company would rather stock dusty copies of Madden '06 than a Zune, what does that tell you?
3. The company noted during yesterday's conference call that gross margins on the hardware side slid this past quarter, based on the move to discontinue Zunes. If Zunes are doing so poorly that GameStop would rather be moving hardware with lower margins, they must have really been collecting dust.
4. With stand-alone CD shops disappearing, GameStop is a good retail gauge of the pulse of music-loving youth.
Don't be a player hater
No one expected the Zune to be an iPod killer, but it's not even nipping at Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) ankles. Heck, it's not even up to SanDisk's (Nasdaq: SNDK) belly button.
Q1 2008
Market Share
Apple iPod 71%
SanDisk 11%
Zune 4%
Creative 2%
Source: NPD Group
Is Apple vulnerable? Critics can point out that Apple commanded a whopping 76% of the market two years ago. However, what about the brisk-selling Apple iPhones, which also double as iPods? Apple is looking to move five times as many of its pricey iPhones this year than all the Zunes Microsoft has sold to date. Even Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) new BlackBerry Bold smartphone syncs up to Apple's iTunes, further entrenching Apple as the digital-delivery standard.
There's little reason to get excited about the Zune, especially since the second million units have sold slower than the first million, despite their generational enhancements and Microsoft's costly marketing campaigns.
Attack of the iPod people
I get why Microsoft wants to bury the iPod. The player's success created a halo effect, winning over Mac converts. They're using Mac's operating system over Windows, surfing on Safari instead of Explorer, and not necessarily relying on Microsoft Office, even though it's popular and available for the Mac.
If successful, the Zune could have given Microsoft its own halo effect, just as the Xbox gave Mr. Softy the Halo effect.
Unfortunately, there comes a point when persistence becomes embarrassment. No one laughs at SanDisk or Creative for taking up slings and stones against the Apple Goliath, but Microsoft is too big to settle for being a niche player. The whole social sharing distinction of the Zune becomes a joke when there are too few Zune owners around to share tunes with.
Apple sold 10.6 million iPods -- and another 1.7 million iPhones -- this past quarter. In other words, it would take Apple less than three weeks to sell the number of portable media players that Microsoft has sold since Zune's birth.
Pick better battles, Microsoft. Even transforming the Zune into a cell phone or portable video game player may not be enough, though at least it would get customers talking again.
More importantly, when you've worn out your welcome with small-box GameStop shops and their audience of Xbox fanboys, it's probably time for a change of Zunery.
Your Stupid. You spent way to much time arguing a weak point. I call bullshit on the whole thing. Gamestop has no bearing on the MP3 player market.
Thank you for posting that article. I just read that myself today. From what I have read, 4400 retail stores worldwide will stop selling this "me too" product. Whose sole purpose is to disrupt the market and slap MS own PlayedForSure partners. It's basically a product born out of arrogance it seems. Perhaps WALMART will save this player. After all WALMART is the upper echelon in the bargain basement world or retail.
"GameStop is a good retail gauge of the pulse of music-loving youth"
Rick Aristotle is an idiot.
@Richard
When you have a mere 4% of the market and only sell a handful of turds a month, no longer being present in a chain of 4400 retail outlets that are full of people buying your other products (Xbox and Xgames) should have a bearing. In this case, however, since nobody was buying the darn things, it's no big deal, but it still speaks volumes as to what a real failure the zune is, at least to anyone with half a brain...
Its been a year and a half in the market and its already surpassed a major player in the MP3 player market, Creative. What failure do you speak of?
Everyone knew they weren't going to convert any iPod owners, nor were they going to all of a sudden take over a heavily saturated market, but progress is progress. Also, of the 1 Million to 2 Million transition since June last year, no one knows what a majority of those 1 Million sales were from, since there are no numbers to indicate whether the new Zunes gave them a boost or not (Microsoft didnt release any numbers).
Just because Gamestop (which didn't even market the Zunes properly) stopped selling a device that they are not in the market to sell doesn't mean that they are going to be hit by their departure.
While I agree that this device was primarily an answer to the iPod success and Gamestop carrying it was to get XBOX owners to buy one, i don't agree with the Halo effect of it and Windows. Windows is firmly perched at number one, and as long as reasonably priced PC's (i.e. Anything but Apple hardware) have Windows pre-installed (be it Vista or XP, remember, they make money off of both), that will remain that way. The Zune would add nothing to that. Apple needs the iPod to get people to buy Macs; Microsoft doesn't need the Zune to sell Windows.
And to include iPhones into the music player mix only invites all cell phones with music capability to be invited as well, in which case iPods look weak when it comes to global marketshare of handset makers like Nokia with their device that have such capabilities.
1. Wrong. Just because you buy one product from a company, does not mean you love the company. People may like a certain product from a company, but may not even like the company, or the company's other products.
2. Comparing sales of an older game to sales of a year-old music device? Yes, that definitely makes sense. Is Munarriz really an expert in business, or what? I wonder how this sell in comparison to iPod players at Gamestop. Oh wait, they don't even sell iPod. I guess that means iPod must be far worse off if they never sold those.
3. Is it that hard to understand why? It's not the product, but Gamestop itself. Gamestop is all about games, considering their name and the products that are mainly sold there. Gamestop didn't even really try selling their Halo-themed first-gen Zune, because they hoped it would have that "Halo effect". Again, tell me how sales of iPods are going over at Gamestop.
4. "GameStop is a good retail gauge of the pulse of music-loving youth" - Is this article suppose to be a joke? Like the Onion? What OTHER music products does Gamestop offer? I looked at the site, and there's music-styled video games, but that's it. In what ways is Gamestop considered the place to find music trends?
This article is a joke. He goes on to undermine the Zune by marketshare, and it wouldn't surprise me if he had shares in Apple. This guy is no expert if he can't do simple research and FAILS TO NOTE that:
a) Gamestop doesn't offer iPods, Creative players, or any other music players, accessories, etc. And soon to be Zune.
b) His 4 reasons are absolutely DUMB. Gamestop sales have NO EFFECT on how well the Zune is doing. None, whatsoever. If it were a more big-name store, then maybe. But this is a GAME store for crying out loud. How idiotic can you be?
c) Pointing out as many bad "facts" as you can about the Zune does not necessarily make you right. I can think of reasons how Microsoft is going to continue making the Zune better, and work even harder to catch up with Apple in that status.
@Jubei : More idiotic statements?
1) If Zune is a "me too" product, so is the Apple TV, iWork, Safari, and other Apple products.
2) Apple slaps PlayForSure users since that content won't work on iPods. Does that count? And PlayForSure was never a success, so stop saying that these users are the left-behinds. You never even used PlayForSure, so why are you commenting about this.
3) Walmart sells iPods as well.
@Feelingood
You know what the funny thing is...I don't even own a zune. I have an ipod touch and I still think your post was stupid. Gamestop has no bearing on the mp3 market. Douche bag!
Microsoft Zune, the guy not the PMP, threatened to sue them unless they paid him to use his name.
lol!! :)
I really love my zune, and now that I can code my own games for it the possiblities of the next version is very exciting. Gamestop is a horrible company anyways, just ask and current or former employee.
"Would you like to Preorder the Zune 160 while you're here?"
No thanks, GameStop.
Zero, zilch, zenophobia, Zune...An aweful name for an iPod competitor combined with Microsoft's user unfriendly software doomed this product from the start. Loads of DRM lockin really helps when you're up against established competition.
"zenophobia", just for your edification, being spelled with an X, not a Z. Actually, a think a Xune would have been better than Zune, assuming they had a better Xbox tie-in for it...
DRM lock in? isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black?
Soon, the only thing left of the Microsoft Zune will be an overweight man with it's name.
He and the Zune go hand in hand. An imperfect mascot for an imperfect device. Now that Canadians can purchase the Zune, the addition of a dozen buyers will establish the Zune as viable force to contend with.
They don't sell iPods, why would they sell Zunes?
I was expecting to come in here and read a bunch of comments bashing the zune, but then I realized that the apple and microsoft fanbois hatred for gamestop far outweighs their petty rivalries with each other.
Gamestop should just shrivel up and die already.
Can you tell I don't like gamestop?
I would not read much into this announcement by GameStop as they don't sell iPod's either. This is a non-story about how the Zune is progressing. Don't believe the sensationalistic and inaccurate coverage of this news from GameStop. Zune thriving and has a stong and dedicated team working on it everyday.
Ok, I'm gonna put the Zune on deathwatch. Which retailer will be next, walmart? They're gonna pull the same thing they did with HD DVD. I bet apple is paying Gamestop off.