“Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer Thursday said the company aims to grow its Zune digital music service and devices, hoping to take market share from Apple Inc’s iPod,” Hans Schoemaker reports for Dow Jones.
“‘We’re going to push our music service and move forward with the devices,’ Ballmer said at an event in Zurich,” Schoemaker reports. “‘We’re going up against a company that does very good work – I gotta give Apple its due,’ he said. ‘But we went into that market and got a market share of some 10%,'”
“Microsoft said it sold over 1.2 million Zunes since last year, compared with sales of 41.4 million iPods from Oct. 2006 to June 2007, according to Apple figures,” Schoemaker reports.
Full article here.
Ballmer must be using Excel to calculate Zune’s market share. Or he’s lying, stupid, or both. 1.2M is 2.9% of 41.4M. 2.9%. And that’s assigning Apple’s share 100% of the market. Give Apple the 70% of the market it actually owns and the entire market (comprised of SanDisk, Sony, Creative, Samsung, and all of the other iPod also rans, er… killers) totals around 59M. 1.2M is 2.03%. That’s Microsoft’s market share.
Ballmer, of course, is repeating his “lie of omission.” He’s talking about hard drive-based portable media player market share – without mentioning that distinction, of course. The only problem with that – besides not implicitly stating that you’re talking about a subset of the market – is that it’s a fictitious, made-up, fantasy number since Apple, the dominant market force, does not break out hard drive sales from flash-based iPods for competitive reasons. In other words, nobody besides Apple CEO Steve Jobs really knows the number of hard drive-based players sold, so Microsoft is just using “10%” as a guesstimate; probably one that conveniently misses on the extreme high-side, of course. Unless you think that only 12M hard-drive based portable media players were sold in total since October 2, 2007, when the Zune began its quest to gather dust on Costco shelves. (Zune has 10% of the narrowly-defined “U.S. 30GB hard drive-based player market,” perhaps?)
Does having 2% market share of the iPod market give Microsoft license to lie about and inflate their market share? Does having 2% market share somehow turn what are supposed to be journalists into complacent repeaters of a lie that’s easily disproved using basic math?
Even MDN is wrong:
Apple’s 41 million iPods are WORLDWIDE sales. So US-numbers should be considerably smaller.
Nevertheless Ballmer’s last brain cell must’ve taken a week off.
I asked a Best Buy employee if anyone was buying Zunes a few months ago and he told me it was the 2nd most popular 30-gig hard-drive based device.
No, a lie is a lie. And there goal is 10%, not there market share.
They have a long way to go before they reach that, if they can even. The latest of the Zune isn’t much better than the previous one and therefore I don’t think much will change.
Hey MDN, we have 100% of the pink, brown, and watermelon colored, hard-drive based, DAP market! Watch out Apple!
Competition is healthy and good for the market.
Apple without competitor challenges is almost as bad as MS without competition.
Bring it on.
John, learn the difference between “their” and “there” — chances are that it will make a big difference in your credibility here and in your paycheck in the real world.
Tom,
Meaningless and likely intended to obfuscate. iPod could sell 98 players to every two Zunes and Zune could still be described “the 2nd most popular 30-gig hard-drive based device.”
Please excuse me for the vast disparity between my IQ and the others’ on display above. God obviously has no problem with gift inequity.
The Grammar Nazis have struck! Hide the kids!
Seriously, the point made about competition is valid. Microsoft’s attempts just help show the superiority of the Apple solution.
Ballmer requested banana scented yellow Zunes for the revamped designs. Preloaded with old Tarzan flicks.
MMMMMMonkey boy!
Ballmer has gotten his Hollywood analogies mixed up and went with the wrong one…..
“If you suck (at) it, they will come.”
-Feels Of Dreams, starring Rod Scarew
Grammer Anyone,
Welcome to the WWW. Grammer is not that important. Posters don’t have editors, so get over it.
Mac Genius,
Let me dumb down Tom’s post so a moron like you can understand:
ha, ha, I asked a Best Buy employee if anyone was buying Zunes a few months ago and he told me it was the 2nd most popular 30-gig hard-drive based device, ha, ha.
In other words, nobody besides Apple CEO Steve Jobs really knows the number of hard drive-based players sold
Oh, come on. I’m sure Apple COO Tim Cook and a number of Apple executives and accounting types also know that number.
Better would have been “nobody besides Apple really knows”.
Hyperbole does no one any favors.
“Grammer is not that important.”
Apparently, neither is spelling!
Maybe those who cannot spell are PC trolls. If they were Mac users, they would be using the OS X spelling features
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2007/10/07/dell-vs-apple-10-years-later/
You may like this note.
rdf-b.
Grammer Anyone,
Welcome to the WWW. Grammer is not that important. Posters don’t have editors, so get over it.
Yeah! Nothing matters anymore.
BTW, the posters didn’t have competent teachers either.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it actually illegal for someone in his position to intentionally “mis-state” sales figures like this? Investors make decisions based on the word of CEO’s. If he is lying, isn’t that something the SEC would hammer him on?
Every independent estimate of mp3 player market share I’ve seen says Microsoft has anywhere from 2 – 5% market share. So it’s not even remotely close to the 10% that Ballmer states.
@WindozeKiller,
you’re right if it was a small company. but MSFT can change the rules.
come on guys, give monkey boy a break….
naturally he overstated the Zune share. it would be impossible to understate it!
I’m surprised that they managed to sell 1M Zunes. This is the first time I’ve heard sales figures from M$.
Still it is important for Apple to have competition. I went to the Santa Clara Apple Store on Saturday. It’s under renovation so only 1/4 was open and it was crowded as hell. Took a look at the new pods and man they are thin and light. You don’t get that impression on the web. But these new offering show that Apple is still way ahead and intends to stay there.
Windoze, that only applies to other companies. If my name is Bill Gates and my company uses an account to make quarterly earnings match Wall Street expectations, I get a slap on the wrist. Don’t do it again says the SEC and Justice. Unfairly lock in OEMs and lockout competitors and be found as a monopoly, get a slap on the wrist by the Justice department.
Other Chairman and CEOs who falsify company numbers go to prison for 20 to 25 years. See a pattern yet. Thankfully, the EU is not as corrupt as the US oversight organizations.
@rdf-b,
You’re right. Grammer is not that important. Neither is math. You lookin’ for a job, kid?
After the interview, Ballmer was overheard chanting:
squircle…squircle…squircle…
for the grammar police,
not everybody here is a mother tongue English speaker. so take it easy. Einstein had an accent and made lots of English grammar mistakes. get over it.
Einstein looked an asshole, had B.O., and wasn’t very smart.
Ballmers lies are about the same as if Ferrari stated it had 75% of the car market. It probably does-for exotics costing $150,000+. A statement knowingly intended to deceive is a lie, period.
Ok, kids, settle down.
I’m as much an Apple fan as anyone, but after a couple decades of “market share denial” re: Mac vs. Windows, I think we can give this non-news item a rest. Does anyone really believe that the Zune is a real threat to the iPod?
Unless it’s just to rip on Ballmer, who is an idjit. Carry on!
Remember, MS only states number of units “shipped”, not actually sold to consumers.
“Einstein looked an asshole, had B.O., and wasn’t very smart.”
Einstein was considered a catch in his earlier years, was German, and was way smarter than rumours by dumbshit protagonist make him out to be.
Ladies and gentlemen, TowerTone! Thank you. Thank you. He’ll be here all week! Be sure to tip your waitress and drive home safely. Good night.
It more like 1% if that much…
Don’t get me wrong but when a so called CEO chooses to lie about his product isn’t that fraud in most circles?
M$$$ has become so unimportant that they have to fly all the way to Zurich to hold a news conference or is it cool to lie in Zurich…
Maybe he’s think that the European market is full of dumb asses who going to believe his shit!
Wrong Steve B, even the eastern European folks are smarter than that… it’s time that Steve B pack up and fly back to his little old sandbox back home!
I see DogGone has seen what most of us who puruse Apple Stores have seen lately – they are slammed with people, absolutely slammed.
Apple Stores are so packed, you would think it is Christmas, and that season has yet to kick off. People are buying like crazy, and it just goes to show how momentum goes a long, long, way and can’t be swayed overnight. Count on Redmond finding out again this year that the new Zunes won’t do a thing to Apple’s share, but instead will kill off a “partner” or two…
And that is the goal for M$. They won’t say it, but their goal is to make this a two-pony game.
1. No more innovations with Plays-for-Sure.
2. Zune to kill off SanDisk, Sony, Creative and whoever else is left.
3. Zune garners (over 3-5 years), 20% of the MP3 market space.
What journalists without narry any critical thinking skills will soon learn is that Apple will still garner 75% of the MP3 player market share, and while Zune will grow it will be due to 1 and 2, which will lead to 3.
Can Zune gain beyond that 20%? That’s the big question, and will MP3 players be relevant any longer or will they all be phones?
My guess is the latter, and Apple is building momentum by the day with that market space, while Redmond is floundering with their Win Mobile.
Steve is just rounding up!
If these other euros with grammar problems can split the atom, we’ll let it slide.
Since Apple quit selling 30GB iPods, Ballmer can boast that they have 100% of the 30GB hard drive based player market. And I’m sure we’ll hear him say it.
While I don’t think it’s practical to expect people to always use correct grammar, not knowing something as basic as the difference between “there” and “their” is a mistake usually made by Americans who grew up speaking English in America. Notice how defensive they get by calling others “Grammar Nazis”. I guess nothing is important anymore. Obviously, grammar, spelling and especially education don’t count for shit in this country. (Bad grammar intended)
I believe Microsoft has 100% of the brown mp3 player market…
If M$ is the underdog, doesn’t that say something about their remarkable ineptitude? They have tons of money to spend and they couldn’t figure out how to make a successful product? How embarrassing.
@John
For Christ’s sake, my name is John too and you are dragging us down the grammatical gutter.
“Their” not “there” please!
“Apple Stores are so packed, you would think it is Christmas, and that season has yet to kick off. People are buying like crazy, and it just goes to show how momentum goes a long, long, way and can’t be swayed overnight.”
i went to get an AppleTV at a time i knew they were less likely to be busy, and when the employees had confirmed was their slow time. 45 or so ppl in there and i had to wait for someone to get free to get the thing. and he recognized me and asked if i wanted a job, they are swamped and hiring.
the holiday season is going to be hell.
How much of these “1.2 million shipped” are shipped to a landfill? Does it have 10% dumpster share?
Oh come on!
Look, MDN, Apple did the same thing back when the iPod first came out. Apple purposefully did not compare the iPod’s market-share against those “cheap flash-based” players.
I agree with the basic tenet–Microsoft is dancing around the truth when they proclaim their 10% market share. In their defense, they only offered hard-drive-based players when they introduced the Zune and it wouldn’t be fair to compare them to the overwhelming market-share of flash-based MP3 players.
Of course, now that they have flash-based players, I wonder what they’ll do.
@ron
“BTW, the posters didn’t have competent teachers either.”
Or maybe the teachers were competent….the students just didn’t do crap…….just a thought.
Excellent point KenC.
10%! Ballmer is getting closer to reality. The last statement I read from him on the subject gave 25%.
John Davis
i ain’t not never ever seen a “Zune” out in public. never ever. i seen one at Target when they first came out but i’m not sure they even sell them anymore.
I dont gets it why your dissin my Gramma?
Jerk! So their!
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Class!! Class! Now Listen up!!!
Today we will study Micro$oft math:
Every item (software of hardware) shipped (please read “forced down the throats of our friendly distribution channel”) counts as a sale. Micro$oft does not take returns.
End of story…
Never believe the the B$ from $teve Ball$le$$mer… the only hting he can use his 10 digits for is five for a banana and the other for “his” banana – what a jerk-off!
Although I wouldn’t trust an iPod with this product myself, have y’all seen the Zune-inspired hide-a-pod?
http://hideapod.com/
It’s like when I don’t bathe for a week and then all the Hygiene Nazis start telling me what to do. It “reflects badly on me” or something, I don’t know, I don’t really bother to listen. Get a life, losers!
(MW is “writing”)