macnn/electronista
06/21/2007, 3:45pm, EDT
Thursday, June 21stZune tops 11 percent player share in May
Microsoft's share of the music player market is continuing to climb, according to preliminary details of a new study published by market researchers NPD. The group notes that the lone 30GB Zune held 11.3 percent of the US market for hard disk-based players in May, a modest but significant increase from the 9.9 percent seen in January. Reasons were not given but the increase in sales is widely believed to be the result of both special edition pink, red, and Halo 3 Zunes as well as store discounts over the course of the spring, which dropped prices to as low as $199 at some large retailers.
Microsoft is still officially on track to sell 1 million players by the end of this month but has declined providing specific numbers, saying only that it has averaged 10 percent in recent months.
The percentage likely keeps Microsoft in second place both for hard drive players and potentially the US portable media player market as a whole, which is known to be led by Apple and is dominated primarily by smaller and usually less expensive flash-based devices. Full statistics for the market are expected to come soon but have yet to be published, NPD says.
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Between the screen cracking problem, the points scheme, inconsistent playback issues and soviet style design, I'm surprised they've sold a single unit. Watch their market share go south as Apple releases their touch enabled iPod with wide screen towards the end of summer/early fall. At that point, anyone who buys a zune will also qualify for a free mental health consultation.
The hard disk-based market has always been well under 50% of the overall player market (even after the first few generations of the iPod grew the HD based market).
How the hell does "on track for 1 million" in a quarter equal 11% of the HD based media player market - when Apple's 22 million HD units quarter equalled 92% of that same market ?
Who the heck comes up with these numbers? They sure didn't graduate from any college.
Paid Liars, of course.
Cover of next MediaWeek: TURDBRICK CRUSHES OVER IPOD's TINY NICHE.
Just look at the store shelves. Talk to high schoolers. This is another MicroSoft® Bomb©.