Zune Drops To Fifth

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Zune Drops To Fifth

By: Nathan Weinberg
2006-12-06

Microsoft's Zune, which had a mini-smash debut, taking the number two spot in market share in its first week, dropped down to a tie for fifth place...

...comprising less than 20% as much market share its second week, despite coinciding with Black Friday. In the week ending November 18, the Zune represented 9% of all portable media device sales, a number that fell to 2.1% the following week.

Link: dropped down to a tie for fifth place

Overall player sales rose dramatically, while Microsoft sold roughly the same number of players in its second week as it did in the first week. Apple's iPod was nearly overtaken by Sandisk (which retook its #2 spot), edging out Sandisk in market share 39.4% to 39.3%. Following those two were Creative (#3) and Memorex (#4), with Disney tying Microsoft for fifth.

I can see why this happened. On Black Friday, shoppers are looking for bargains, not popular items per se', and the Zune wasn't exactly discounted anywhere. Neither was the iPod, which is why Apple almost got beat. My brother accompanied me to Best Buy on Black Friday, and he was shocked that there were no deals on the all-important iPod, or even the supposedly hot Zune. While there was no way we were going to see a price break on a week-old Zune, it is ridiculous that you can't get an iPod on sale, ever.

That is what happens when you have a monopoly.

By the by, if anyone at NPD Group (who released these numbers) is a reader, I'd love to do deeper coverage of these reports in the future. Hit the contact links on the right.

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Tag: Microsoft, Zune

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About the Author:
Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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