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Dell hit with shortage of brown Zunes

updated 05:30 pm EST, Thu December 6, 2007

Dell's brown Zune shortage

Dell has unexpectedly run out of brown Zunes, a manager with the company explains. As part of a clearance coinciding with Black Friday and the release of Microsoft's latest Zunes, Dell last month hosted a deal on the original 30GB player. Shoppers could buy it for an extremely low $99, only $20 more than the 1GB iPod shuffle by Apple; this triggered a flood of buyers, many of whom chose the brown color, most likely because it is rarely offered on any other media player.

Stocks rapidly dwindled, leading to numerous complaints of delayed or non-existent shipping. To cope with the problem Dell is substituting all brown Zune orders with white or black ones, which they note are functionally identical. If a customer decides he does not like the player, he will have to return it within 30 days of getting it in the mail.

 
Previous Comments

Hide-A-Pod

12/06, 06:09pm reply

Well, with more iPods sold, the higher the need for Hide-A-Pod: The ultimate iPod and iPhone anti-theft device . . . Hide it in a Zune!

Check it out. That's where the brown Zzzzzunes are going to end up... hideapod.com

dliup

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2006

0

Not so surprising

12/06, 06:31pm reply

when you consider that no one thought to make any more after their dismal sales. To be fair, that particular brown color was chosen as one of this year's official design colors at the conference that spans all of the design industries. However, many of said colors aren't all the attractive, just different to make people want to get the "new" items.

Guess there's no accounting for taste when it's powered by the profit-first mentality.

danviento

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2005

0

take a loss...

12/06, 06:41pm reply

Much?!

lol! Maybe it beats never selling them, but I'm guessing, not by much. WOW™

Flying Meat

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2007

0

Wow!

12/06, 07:12pm reply

To cope with the problem Dell is substituting all brown Zune orders with white or black ones, which they note are functionally identical.

I can't believe MS actually managed to make three different color Zunes and make them functionally identical.

And can we STFU about the stupid-assed 'hide-a-pod' c***. Most people would argue thieves are a stupid lot. As such, they'd have no problem stealing a zune or an ipod. And I would venture they don't bother paying too much attention to what they're taking until they get away and have a chance to peruse their ill-gotten gains.

Of course, it would be really funny if people actually wanted a zune (well, someone's buying them, even at a loss) that they stole your zune protected ipod.

testudo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

I just ate...

12/06, 07:36pm reply

...I could probably squeeze out a few "brown zunes" here in a little bit.

leamanc

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2003

0

givaway

12/06, 08:43pm reply

my gosh. what's a 30 gig 1.8" hard drive worth? talk about buying market. Just like the X Box, MS sporting a money looser just to try and grab market.

macbones

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2006

0

leave it to MS

12/06, 10:05pm reply

Something is actually selling - and they run out.

Doofuses.

robttwo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2005

0

How many were sold?

12/06, 11:34pm reply

A real story would list how many Zunes were sold. Maybe they had 15 to begin with and they're sold out -- not news. If they had 15,000,000 and sold out, then it's news. Facts, please....

derbbre

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2000

0

Non-news

12/07, 12:29pm reply

Numbers people-we need numbers. Unofficially it has been reported that Dell was in possession of 3 Brown zunes. This brings the total sale of G1 zunes to 16 since they were introduced a year ago.

Way I figure it, media should make this a top story considering it contains about the same level of facts found in this one. Talk about doing anything to prop this stillborn player up.

BTW: Just had a chance to try out the iPod touch. Apple's Hyperion to MS's satyr. Now-Apple-give us more of the same in different configurations.

Monde

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2004

0

brown

12/07, 02:48pm reply

Brown is a very hip color right now. Offering a brown Zune is really the only thing MS got right.

notehead

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

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