Microsoft’s Gamestop Zune Response

May 26, 2008 By Digital Trends Staff

Microsoft has responded defensively to the news that Gamestop will cease to carry its Zune portable media player.

Last week retailer Gamestop revealed that it will stop selling Microsoft’s Zune portable media players because of what it called low demand.

"We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated," a GameStop spokesperson told TheStreet.com. "It [also] did not fit with our product mix."

The company will keep Zunes in stock until its inventory is gone. But it’s left Microsoft very defensive.

"We have a set of great retail partnerships that give Zune a strong presence at retail including Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, and others," Adam Sohn, director of marketing for the Zune, noted in a statement. "We will continue to invest in deep retail partnerships, and have seen good momentum online and at retail over the last few months including a great response to our recent spring update."

However, it’s a simple fact that the Zune, which Microsoft introduced two years ago, has really failed to make a dent in the market with just 4% of the market, as opposed to the 71% claimed by the iPod.

Showing 8 comments

Timus at 12:51pm 27th May 2008 Vista means extra large turd in Sudanese......
Ed Milo at 12:47am 27th May 2008 This is really weird. I looked up "Zune" in the Sudanese dictionary and it actually means "turd!" How strange?!
Well at least I've still got my Vista.
Nick Weston at 12:45am 27th May 2008 Amazing! The Zune is clearly the ultimate! I MUCH prefer buying my songs with "Zune Points" instead of dollars and cents! And I LOVE having to poke around MS's purposely cryptic site to find music!
I've shared my music with TWO or THREE people since I've "joined the social" a few years back, so boo hoo!
I know, MS had three years to research and copy (they're good at that) the iPod/iTunes MONOPOLY. Just because they fell short of even equaling those two icons isn't the point.
It's just all really stupid and you should get a Zune.
By the way, I sell a virus protection program for it for 29 dollars:
keepyourzuneclean.com
Matt at 9:50pm 26th May 2008 "It did not have the appeal we had anticipated" Translation...Noone bought any of them so were no longer goig to try and schlep them to our audience.

Can you blame them?
Stantheman at 11:55am 26th May 2008 umm why would Gamestop even sell Zunes in the first place? Thats the last place I would look for an MP3 player.
Philip at 11:53am 26th May 2008 Who cares about blind folks?

The Zune navigation is a nightmare, ear buds suck and the Zune Marketplace is terrible.
dickginnold at 9:59am 26th May 2008 Need accessories like speakers for fixed operation. Also version for blind folks.
vmlenigma at 9:31am 26th May 2008 YOU MIGHT want to CHANGE the name, ZUNE sounds stupid....name it like Ibrick or the Feces