European Launch and New Zunes likely for Late 2007
In an article by Reuters, they talked with the marketing director of Zune and he give us some hints of the possible timeline for the new releases. He said that Microsoft is happy with the sales in the US to this point. The Zune took a 10.2 marketshare in the month of December according to the NPD Group.
He indicated that the Zune’s European launch is possible for late 2007, in time for the holiday season. He said that Microsoft is currently doing research wuth focus groups to modify Zune for European customers. This change will probably be mostly on the software and marketing aspect though. However, he still said that Microsoft has not given a firm release date for Europe and that it may only show up on the market in 2008.
He also indicated that Microsoft is working on new Zune’s for the US. The new Zunes should arrive for the Christmas season in the US aswell. This will probably include the flash based Zune’s mentioned earlier and an update to the hard drive Zunes. The change isn’t unexpected seeing that iPods and other portable media players also go through yearly revisions.
It’s good to see that Microsoft is beginning to reserach using focus groups in Europe. But they still have to launch the player in Canada, Australia and many other areas of the world.
Sigh.
Another Microsoft marketing blunder.
Spend millions on decorating Southern Cross station in Melbourne for an operating system that’s going to be adopted by everyone anyway, but don’t bother to spend the dollars in releasing the MP3 player, which is up against a giant seasoned player vis a vis the iPod, in other countries with the same amount of advertising.
It’s good to see Microsoft doing research, but why on such things as where to release the player and how? I work in retail, and I’ve got to say, those things are pretty trivial, quite the Captain Obvious, or that’s what I would have thought.