Microsoft Cuts Zune Music Player Price by $50

Microsoft Corp cut the price of its Zune digital music player on Wednesday by $50 to $199 in an attempt to rev up sales of the device competing against Apple Inc's iPod.


Microsoft announced the price cut for the 30-gigabyte player on the Zune Insider blog run by one of its employees, just hours before Apple's news conference, where the company, as expected, updated its iPod lineup with new models.


Microsoft said it had been planning the price cut "for months" and expects the lower price to lure new customers.


The world's largest software maker faces a herculean task in taking on Apple in digital music players, a category defined by its iPod, which has sold over 100 million units since its introduction in October 2001.


Microsoft introduced the Zune last year, touting its capabilities to share music wirelessly. With only the 30-GB model, Microsoft met its target to sell more than 1 million units before the end of June.


Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is expected to introduce different Zune models before the holiday season. A Microsoft executive said Tuesday the company had nothing to announce at this time, but said its plan over time is to offer new Zune models and roll out the devices in new markets.


SOURCE:pcmag.com
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Microsoft Adds to 'Zune Phone' Speculation

Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday that it is "not unreasonable" for the company to introduce a mobile phone combined with features of its Zune digital music player to compete with Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

The Zune phone, a topic of speculation for months since Microsoft introduced its first digital music player last year, could be driven by consumer demand for one multimedia device to make phone calls, play music and take pictures.

To date, the focus of Microsoft's mobile phone business has been providing its Windows Mobile software to handset manufacturers, but the company said an integrated business model of making both device and software could make sense.

"It wouldn't be unreasonable to think expect at some point there might some integrated thing," Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, told investors at Citigroup's global technology conference.

Microsoft has sent mixed signals about the Zune phone. At the time it introduced the Zune last year, the company said a Zune phone was definitely part of its future plans.

Earlier this year, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said at a CEO forum that the Zune phone is not a concept that Microsoft will ever do but then said it could easily add music or gaming functionality to its Windows Mobile platform.

Windows Mobile is one of Microsoft's fastest growing businesses with license sales expected to nearly double this fiscal year to more than 20 million copies.

It remains a product largely targeted at office workers, but Mount expects that to change as consumers push to combine work and personal needs onto one handset. She said she was not making any specific announcements about its future products.

Mount declined to comment on rumors that Microsoft may buy BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd., but said the company is happy with its future in mobile right now.

"What I would ask people is what (RIM) really gets you. A lot of their money is coming from the hardware business and they are going after a very particular segment," said Mount, whose division also oversees the Xbox game console and Zune music player business.

Shares of Microsoft rose 33 cents to $29.06 in afternoon Nasdaq trade, while RIM shares touched a new high of $85.88 on the Nasdaq before falling 3 cents on the day to $85.38.


SOURCE:pcmag.com

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Microsoft sells a Million Zunes

Hey, looks like Robbie Bach's powers of prognostication aren't so far off. Microsoft did indeed make their goal of selling a million Zunes by the end of June, getting 1.2 million of them out the door since their November launch.

Of course, even before the announcement cynics were all over the statistic, saying that the one million figure only counts Zunes shipped to retailers, not those actually in the hand of consumers. Which is true, but it doesn't matter -- every company does this. So long as we're all using the same metrics, everything's cool, right?


Well, no. Those same cynics will then argue that Microsoft has flooded the retail channels, probably through some kind of strong-arm tactics, bribery or mind control. To which I answer: Enough already. One million Zunes in seven months was a lame target to begin with (more charitable term: "modest") for a purported "iPod killer"; it's as if Microsoft already knew their product was, at best, so-so -- which is ridiculous for a company with Microsoft's resources.

They have their work cut out for them. Let them enjoy their moment.


source:pcworld.com
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