Tuesday, May 29,2007 @ 1:40pm
Microsoft's 1M Zune claim misleading?
Assertions that Microsoft was ahead of the curve on Zune production were inaccurate, says an investigation by Business 2.0 into the subject. The magazine found that Microsoft Entertainment division head Robbie Bach has been misquoted in the text version of his interview, which alleged that Microsoft had already beaten its modest goal of selling more than a million of its media players by June. The executive had just reiterated earlier claims, according to the actual quote.
"When we finish our fiscal year in June we'll have sold a little over a million Zunes," Bach said in the actual audio recording. "So we feel very good about that."
The change drastically reduces the expectations for the device, which slips from better than expected sales to the same estimates as given shortly after launch. Additionally, the financial news outlet also notes that the prediction may only include sales to the stores themselves rather than actual customers, raising the possibility that some of the million devices may remain on store shelves by the end of June.
Apple by comparison sold few iPods during its early stages, mustering actual sales of 600,000 in the first 14 months. Experts pointed out, however, that the company was serving a much smaller market and had been limited primarily to Mac users during the period. Over 100 million iPods have been sold as of April this year.