Zune Team Responds on the Zune 80 Availability Issues
Posted by Chris Leckness on 11/20/07This is a right on time post. I had a journalist for a major national newspaper contact me today for my thoughts on the Zune 80 availability issues. I talked with my contact at Microsoft about this inquiry. I was given a suitable reply to this and it's basicly that they didn't anticipate such strong Zune 80 sales. This response was mirrored with slightly different wording just minutes ago by Cesar over at Zune Insider. Thanks Cesar!
You may have seen some buzz in the news and online over the last few days about the availability of Zune 80 - so I talked to the product management and retail teams to get the story. Here’s what I found out: Based on our own forecasts as well as early retail orders, we chose to prioritize production of the Zune 4 and Zune 8. Zune 80 was at retail on launch day albeit in lower numbers. That combined with the positive press cycle and higher-than-expected demand has led to the current situation - but here’s the good news – we’ve stepped up production and significant inventory will begin hitting stores within the next 7-10 days. Right now, the stores which currently have availability: Circuit City, Target, and Walmart, and online, check out Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal Mart, GameStop, Amazon, and Dell.
I can tell you that they are out there, I have purchased 3 Zune 80s, 2 4gb Flash Zunes, and 2 of the 8gb Flash Zunes. I got all the Flash Zunes from Wal Mart, 1 of the Zune 80s at Wal Mart and 2 of them from Circuit City.
PS. Use our contact form if you have been looking long and hard for a Zune 80 with no luck.
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17 Responses for "Zune Team Responds on the Zune 80 Availability Issues"
Great, I’ve been looking everywhere for the 80GB Zune since launch, WalMart and KMart appear to only have the 4GB (the 8GB’s sell out as soon as they hit shelves) and Radio Shack hasn’t even gotten a second shipment of any of them! Besides that there’s nothing around where I am w/o driving to Atlanta.
- Leif
Thais great that they are making a public adress
I really don;t think it has anything to do with high demand. The stores by me never had them. If each of the store near me had about 10 Zune80s and now they are out of them, then I could see blaming it on the demand. But they never had them so you have to blame it on supply.
Wow. I guess they nver expected it to sell this well. Wow, I dont know that to think about this one.
Yeah, I’m thinking that this is more a marketing spin than a real unexpected sell in. They either didn’t make enough, couldn’t make enough, or deliberately decided not to make enough and then planned to spin it this way.
Apple pulls stuff like this all of the time, too.
I agree I think it might just be the Marketing plan to limit the supply of the Zune 80 and then when the holiday season does come Bang… A whole bus load of Zunes show up at all the stores. Thats my take on the situation but who am I?
Trevor
pst… pst…. people on the other side of the fence (read apple fans) are already calling hard-disk based players dead or atleast soon to be dead. Microsoft may have made that assumption and thought that people will go after their flash based Zunes like crazy. We will know how the zunes do by the end of the year, but it is a bit sad to see that the 4/8 are not doing exictingly well at least on Amazon, but who cares, we will see how the equation changes when the 80s are in stock around 1.5 weeks from now.
I just hope they have a good amout next month,
and start selling it to us canadians. come on MS, give us the goods!!
A marketing ploy? Hmm, possibly, possibly…Its actually a pretty good one to get people all hyped up. But its not like the Wii shortage this year or anything. What I’d like to know is more on sales….How their intake it doing, I think their selling
But thats just my very hopeful alternative to a marketing ploy.
-Lynda
P.s Thanks for the update =)
Marketing ploy sounds like a very real possibility, however, Amazon had plenty (And sold out) and I know a Circuit City and Fry’s in Atlanta, GA had quite a few which sold out on the first day. However, the Fry’s did not get the 80GB player until a day or so before launch (About three days before I was there and asked for one, he said he would sell me the 8 but that he didn’t have the 80 yet).
Personally I’d say MS just didn’t expect the 80 to sell as well as the 4 and 8 and put it on the backburner production wise. They most likely expected people to look at the old 30’s (I love them, but you have to admit it was a pretty big flop, hacked together like that) and judge the 80 based off of their experience with that while the flash based Zune would appear like something new in the eyes of the consumer.
My two cents,
- Leif
[…] Cesar at Zune Insider says a full batch of Zune 80s are ready to ship and will be in most stores within the next week (give or take a couple of days). Apparently, Microsoft anticipated a greater demand for flash Zunes, leading to the Zune 80 shortage. Be afraid, iPod cassic. Be very afraid. [Zune Insider via Got Zune?] […]
I got an 80 gig Zune at a Target nearby on Monday (thats 6 days after its release). They had a total of 2 available that day. The next day, I went to another Target, and they had 5 of them, and while I was there (a total of 10 minutes), 2 were sold.
I don’t think its anything but underproduction on Microsoft’s part, hopefully they will step up production. It is, however, undeniable that these things are in high demand and an excellent value for the money and pretty much wipe the floor with anything else in its price / feature range. I am extremely happy with mine.
[…] Cesar at Zune Insider says a full batch of Zune 80s are ready to ship and will be in most stores within the next week (give or take a couple of days). Apparently, Microsoft anticipated a greater demand for flash Zunes, leading to the Zune 80 shortage. Be afraid, iPod cassic. Be very afraid. [Zune Insider via Got Zune?] […]
[…] Here is the news you were waiting for and it comes from Got Zune? […]
I have read on the forums that Wal Mart is getting alot of these now.
Its strange, 4 months down the line and some still have trouble finding Zune 80’s. There are much less 80’s available than Zune 4’s and 8’s thats for sure.
Yep— it’s March 26 ‘08 and you still can’t find the 80gb in many places, basically just Target and maybe Circuit City.
Their merits aside, you can tell how badly the flash Zunes are selling by glancing at store shelves. I was at a Circuit City the other day looking at flat panel TV’s and noticed this: the Samsung P2’s shelves wiped out; all the ipod shelves, wiped out; Zune 80gb shelf, wiped out except for two; the flash Zune 4 and 8? There were four neatly stacked rows, of the 4gb and 8gb, all full. People are liking the 80gb, the 30gb—the flash ones? Not so much.
The popular flash players right now seem to be the Samsung and Sony players and Sansa Clip.
Personally, I think we’ll see a radical re-think by Microsoft regarding their flash players, especially now that both Apple and Sandisk have released 32gb flash players. The hard drive dap market is definitely on the wane.
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