Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Did Microsoft Underestimate the Demand for the v2 Zune?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune Talk" @ 12:00 PM
"Who would have thought that? Market research firm iSuppli today said that Microsoft in fact is not meeting market demand for its Zune portable media player. However, the reason may not be just a jump in demand for certain models, but an overly cautious market strategy of Microsoft as well, the market research firm speculated. Reports about out-of-stock Zunes have surfaced from time to time over the past weeks, and some even suggested that Zune may be outselling at least some of Apple’s iPods. iSuppli added its insight in the current PMP market today, stating that the Zune sales spike was largely limited to the “deeply discounted Zune 30 model”. Short supply of the newer Zune 80 however may much more due to the fact that Microsoft may have “erred on the side of caution when placing initial orders for the new Zunes, which include the Hard-Disk-Drive (HDD) based Zune 80 as well as the flash- memory-based Zune 4 and 8,” iSuppli analyst Chris Crotty suggested."
This article won't come as a surprise to anyone who has tried to fund a Zune 80, though I hear it's getting easier than it was a couple of weeks ago. Since I'm not seeing Zunes at retail in Canada, what about our US-based readers? Are you seeing Zunes in stock at retail, both the Zune 4/8 and Zune 80, or are you seeing depleted stock?
This article won't come as a surprise to anyone who has tried to fund a Zune 80, though I hear it's getting easier than it was a couple of weeks ago. Since I'm not seeing Zunes at retail in Canada, what about our US-based readers? Are you seeing Zunes in stock at retail, both the Zune 4/8 and Zune 80, or are you seeing depleted stock?
