Zune has sold over 2 million units and grabbed a whopping 4% market share in it’s 2nd year of production. Zune hit the 1 million mark back in 07/07. That was one million in just under the first year and this 2nd million comes in at about 1 1/2 years after the release date of the first player. They made the jump from 1 to 2 faster so it looks like Zune may be gaining steam. It was expected that Zune would be a late bloomer and Microsoft stated in the very beginning the had a 3 to 5 year plan for this.

I would think they are mildly pleased with hitting 4% market share in that time. Many folks had Zune doomed from the start and most thought it would never make it this far. I knew Microsoft was planning for a long battle and it looks like their efforts may be paying off. They have not had the best of luck with Zune and they have even been their own worst enemy at times but Microsoft has the hammer approach to marketing and they’ll just keep pounding away until the get it right. We’re gonna love zune and they’ll keep shoving stuff at it until we do!

I’m really digging the new games on Zune and I have beeen letting the kids use it more since we put them on it as well. I think Microsoft should work on porting as many free games for Zune as they can find and start adding some fan favorites into the Zune MarketPlace alongside Podcasts and Videos for a full service media market place. If I could find more Zune games to download I’d have more fun I think.

Zune Eats Creative’s Meager Lunch, Grabbing 4 Percent of MP3 Player Market | Listening Post from Wired.com

Microsoft’s Zune picked up a percentage point in the MP3 player market, bringing its share to a whopping four percent, with two million units sold. Microsoft has said from the start that it will stick with the Zune for as long as it takes for the player to gain traction, and it looks like that’s starting to happen.

Apple’s share of the MP3 player market share dropped a single point to 71 percent, according to the NPD Group’s study, but its lead is still monstrous. The bigger loser between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008 was Creative, which saw its share halved to two percent.

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Here is a first look at Games for Zune on video. The Zune makes a great game playuer and moving around even on my old school Zune 30 is pretty smooth. I understand games are much better on the squircle for the Zune 80 and with that much space you can really stuff some musioc and new games on Zune.

Video: XNA Game Running on a Zune

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Microsoft denies putting ‘copyright cop’ in Zune | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com

The New York Times suggested Wednesday that future versions of the Zune might come with a tiny cop capable of catching digital lawbreakers.

And no, I’m not talking about some sort of bundled action flick.

In a blog, the Times’ Saul Hansell said that, as part of Microsoft’s deal to get NBC TV shows, it had agreed to look into the possibility of adding technology into the MP3 player that would scan a user’s collection for unauthorized content.

The blog cites Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn as saying that the software maker is exploring antipiracy measures with NBC. Microsoft issued a statement on Wednesday denying that there was any agreement to filter content.

“Microsoft has no plans or commitments to implement content filtering features in the Zune family of devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC,” the software maker said in a statement.

Sohn echoed the sentiment. “We’ve agreed to work with these guys on a number of issues, but we have no plans or commitment to put filtering technology as part of this arrangement with NBC,” he told CNET News.com.

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Small victory for Microsoft’s Zune over iPod - International Herald Tribune

Microsoft will sell television shows on the Zune Marketplace, bringing its selection of content for the digital media player a step closer to what the iTunes site from Apple offers for the iPod.

Microsoft also said Tuesday that it planned to provide software updates that add new features to Zune devices and to the PC software used to buy and manage digital content.

Microsoft ventured into downloadable video sales for the Zune in October when it released its second-generation players and software, but the content was limited to music videos.

As of Tuesday, Microsoft was selling episodes of TV shows, including Comedy Central’s “South Park” and Sci-Fi Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica,” for $1.99 each.

In a small victory over Apple, Microsoft said the Zune Marketplace would carry shows from the NBC network like “The Office” and “Heroes.”

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Zune struggles to find the right pitch | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com

After a decent freshman year, the Zune appears to be having a bit of a sophomore slump.

In its first year on the market, Microsoft shipped 1.2 million Zunes, reaching about 3 percent of the U.S. market for MP3 players by the first quarter of 2007. A year later, the company’s market share stands at about 4 percent, but that slight gain comes as Microsoft has expanded from one hard-drive model into a family of products that includes both flash-based and hard drive-based units.

As part of its announcement of a Zune video store this week, Microsoft noted that it has now sold more than 2 million Zunes. That would appear to show that business is not growing much despite the expansion of the product line. (And, to get a sense of where the competition is, Apple sold more than 10 million iPods in just the non-holiday January to March quarter).

For their part, Microsoft Zune officials say they’re pleased with where things stand, reiterating that they see their effort to form a serious rival to the iPod as a years-long project.

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Microsoft updates Zune targeting iPod – eventually iPhone too?

Microsoft is famous for losing the initial battle but winning the long, drawn-out war. And while Apple’s combo of the iPod and now iPhone may seem an insurmountable competitor, Microsoft today released a major upgrade of its Zune device and software to more directly compete with Apple, amid rumors it may also have a “Zune-phone” in the offing soon as well.

Microsoft is already on the second generation of hardware for its Zune player, which, like the iPod, delivers music, podcast and video playback. Microsoft has lagged behind Apple on the software front; its Zune software up to now has not offered movies or TV shows for sale, although it does offer a subscription-based music service, something Apple has shied away from.

Today Microsoft released the Zune 2.5 software, which among other new features will offer downloads of TV shows from a variety of sources, including Comedy Central, NBC, Nickelodeon, Ultimate Fighting Championship and elsewhere. Overall, Microsoft will offer more than 800 TV episodes for download, priced at 160 Zune points (or about $1.99). Movies were not part of the announced offering.

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Zune Finding Ways to Work with Danger = Zune Hiptop? | Gizmodo Australia

After a presentation at Microsoft’s Zune media event, Chris Stephenson, GM of Marketing for Zune, offhandedly mentioned that they’re finding ways to integrate and work with Danger’s 250-man staff. As a reminder, Danger, who Microsoft bought, is strictly a consumer handset OS maker. No one has officially confirmed the Zune Phone project’s existence until now, without a retraction. But this is a step in the right direction.

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XNA Team Blog : Channel 9 Video - Michael Klucher discusses developing games for the Zune

Channel 9 Video - Michael Klucher discusses developing games for the Zune

David “LetsKillDave” Weller

Program Manager - XNA Community

We invite you to view this sneak peek video on Zune development with XNA Game Studio, featuring our own XNA Game Studio Program Manager, Michael Klucher. In this video, Michael describes some of the history and challenges the XNA Game Studio team faced when implementing support for the Zune platform, plus demonstrates how to build and deploy a game on the Zune. If you’re passionate about the future of mobile gaming, you’ll consider this to be a well-spent 17 minutes!

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It’s finally here. Install games on your Zune player using the steps outlined at Zune Boards. I’m busy with the install now. More on how it goes later

Installing game/XNA on your zune - Zune Boards

1. Download the follow 2 program:
Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP
Visual C# 2008 Express Edition

2. Install C# 2008 first

3. Now install the XNA Game Studio program

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Microsoft May Build A Copyright Cop Into Every Zune - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

If you like to download the latest episodes of “Heroes” or other NBC shows from BitTorrent, maybe you shouldn’t buy a Microsoft Zune to watch them on.

A future update of the software for Microsoft’s portable media player may well include a feature that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it.

Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it would start selling video programming for the Zune, mainly TV shows. These include programs from NBC Universal, which has pulled its shows off Apple’s iTunes Store.

Late Tuesday afternoon I reached J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, to ask why NBC found Microsoft’s video store more appealing than Apple’s.

He explained that NBC, like most studios, would like the broadest distribution possible for its programming. But it has two disputes with Apple.

First, Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99. NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it chooses.

Second, Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos.

Microsoft, by contrast, will accept NBC’s pricing scheme and will work with it to try to develop a copyright “cop” to be installed on its devices.

For now, both issues are rather theoretical. NBC does have some variation in its wholesale price schedule, although Mr. Perrette declined to describe it. Microsoft has chosen to absorb the differences and sell all shows for about $1.99.

Nonetheless, Mr. Perrette said, NBC wants the flexibility to sell older shows at lower prices and hit shows at higher prices than the standard Apple has set. It also wants to create various deals that would, for example, allow a discount for people buying a season or other group of episodes at one time.

“That separation of the wholesale pricing flexibility and what the retailer decides to charge is core to us,” Mr. Perrette said. “Zune was willing to provide that.”

Similarly, the copyright filtering system is still in development and its exact form has not been set.

Mr. Perrette said the plan is to create “filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content.”

He said this would be similar to systems being tested by Microsoft, Google and others that are meant to block pirated clips from video sharing sites. NBC is also working with Internet service providers like AT&T to put similar filters right into the network.

Mr. Perrette added that NBC is trying to develop similar hardware technology with SanDisk, through whom NBC also sells its programming.

Adam Sohn, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to discuss details of this effort other than to say that the software company is exploring anti-piracy measures with NBC. He said Microsoft, which suffers from its own piracy problems, is sympathetic to Hollywood’s concerns.

At the same time, it will be difficult for Microsoft to add features that consumers don’t like to its Zune products, which already lag far behind Apple in the market.

Mr. Perrette said NBC understands the potential resistance. “In the short term, this will not win us a lot of friends,” he said. “In the long term, the consumer wants there to be quality premium-produced content, and in order for that to continue to be a viable business, there needs to be significant protection around it.”

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