Zune Thoughts: Microsoft Sold 1.2 Million Zunes in 7.5 Months

"Microsoft said last week that it had met its previously stated goal of selling one million Zunes by the end of the company's fiscal year, which occurred on June 30. "We actually went above and beyond our goal: we sold 1.2 million units," Microsoft's Cesar Menendez said in the Zune Insider web log. Other reports also indicate that the company has surpassed an 11 percent market share in hard-drive based players, although its overall share remains around 3 percent of the market. Even as Microsoft celebrates its success with the Zune, the iPod still outsells it by a wide margin. During the same period, Apple has likely sold more than 20 million iPods according to estimates."

Well now - this news seemed to have slipped right under my radar (not surprising considering how many blips I have on it). At any rate, it's great to see that Microsoft not only met the goal it self, but exceeded that goal by 20%. 1.2 million Zunes isn't a lot compared to the iPod, but 1.2 million of anything sold in 7.5 months is something to stand up and take notice of. Most consumer products can only hope to sell that many units in less than half a year! Harvey Chute over at Zunerama has some interesting points in his post about this topic, namely that this means Microsoft is hitting their own internal sales goals, and that the Zune managed to sell that many units despite the hype surrounding the iPhone and the lack of DRM-free songs in the Zune Marketplace (what's taking so long anway?). Once Microsoft gets a Flash-based player in the game, and they polish up a few rough edges, I might actually be ready to recommend the Zune to friends and family members. Oh, and released in Canada as well.