One million Zunes down…
Will Head writes…
Despite the nay-sayers stating no one would buy a Microsoft branded MP3 player over Apple’s little darling, it looks like it’s shifted its millionth unit already – just before its self-imposed June deadline.
It took Apple 14 months to reach the same goal with the original iPod – but then the market was completely different back then. One million units is still pretty impressive, especially since the Zune is only officially available in the States.
Of course, this isn’t the one that’s really going to change things that much – as with all things Microsoft it’s version three that you should keep an eye on.
Windows was nothing special until it hit 3.0, Windows 98 Second Edition was essentially 95 revision three and Windows XP was third in (product) line after NT 4 and Windows 2000. Xbox has seen off Sega from the console business, but it’s only in its second incarnation and we’ll have to wait a little while to see what happens with the next model.
And it’s not like the Zune isn’t a pretty good player anyway. True, it’s a little on the bulky side and it could do with a bit more styling – but it’s not a bad little device.
What’s more important is the wireless music sharing feature – something no other player has. True, you do need to find someone else to share with (although there are one million now, so the odds are getting better) and it is crippled by necessary restrictions – such as only being able to play beamed tracks three times for three days.
But these are things that a company the size of Microsoft can iron out over time – there are definitely more exciting things to come from the Zune camp and we’ve still got another player to come before it hits the mythical third version.
