Zune sales may fall short of expectations

Microsoft's Zune media player is struggling to meet expectations since its launch in mid-November, according to several reports. BusinessWeek points to a slippage in the popularity of the iPod competitor following a loss in marketshare that put the Zune in fifth place after just two weeks on store shelves. The most popular black Zune model fell to 19th place among music players over the weekend, and was outsold by 13 iPod models as well as five non-Apple music players. The white Zune is suffering from worse sales numbers, according to Businessweek's Stephen Wildstrom, who said "if you want to sell a white music player, it had better be an iPod."

Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg observed that several key aspects of the Zune release were flawed, and will likely hurt Microsoft's ability to reach its target of one million units sold by June of next year. The Zune is described as "clunky" relative to the full-sized iPod, missing out on the increased popularity of the flash player market, leaving Apple's iPod nano virtually unchallenged.

Gartenberg added that the perceived quality of the player is in part due to Microsoft's reckless approach to marketing its handheld. "Microsoft let others take the Zune message to the media," he said, referring to an incident on CNN in which its device was openly dismissed in favor of the iPod shuffle. The Jupiter analyst suggests that Microsoft's unwillingness to provide the Zune a public defense has cost it an important early chance at luring attention away from Apple's lineup, according to Electronista.

Filed under: iPod, industry