Microsoft boasts selling 1M Zunes is “fun” competition with Apple

May 28, 2007 |

Microsoft boasts selling 1M Zunes is “fun” competition with Apple

By Triston McIntyre

Microsoft boasts selling 1M Zunes if So we’re all familiar with the concept of denial to appease one’s own false self-impressions, but Microsoft’s opinion of Apple’s media player competition is downright laughable; though Zune has reached the 1 million mark in sales, Microsoft’s head of entertainment has proclaimed competition with Apple in the media player realm is “fun”!

Microsoft has made impressive advancements in its Zune program; though it originally listed June as its target for the 1M mark, it reached the goal one month early, as reported by MacNN.

I must say the most entertaining aspects of large corporate competition are the comments made by head honchos; the head of entertainment, Robbie Bach, is no exception to the humor.

According to MacNN, Bach said competing with the Apple “fun” because the company is very skilled and a “worthy” challenger. How noble and generous an allowance that is, as Apple has a stranglehold on the media player market.

Moving swiftly on, he continues making comments about Apple, this time in regards to the iPhone:

“Apple is very good at design; they come up with interesting approaches to products,” Bach said. “Like anything else, it will have its trade-offs. It will be pretty high priced, and just on the Cingular (AT&T) network. But, it’s an Apple product. It’ll attract its level of attention from Apple enthusiasts, and we’ll see where it goes from there. And it’s a new concept, highly integrated.”

To be truthful, that isn’t too far from the mark; however, I feel that Bach is very much playing the “safe” position by not allowing for the success the iPhone is sure to have. What with talks of a Zune phone, his defensive position is to be expected.

Microsoft is obviously now faced with direct competition with the iPhone if they are considering marketing their own communication device; in such a position, they have decided to publicly portray themselves as not locked into one single unit.

“Some people want a flip phone, some people want a candy bar, some people want a QWERTY keyboard, some people want a touch screen, some people want music phones — people have different needs.”

So that is how it will be, then; Microsoft, though lacking any physical plans of multiple lines of phones, has taken the stance of multiple phone production to best suit customer needs. Very interesting, indeed.

Either way, the folks at Apple must be elated to learn that the Zune teams thinks them a worthy adversary. That should really bolster their hopes of someday, somehow, making a name for themselves in the portable media market. Perhaps they could market something called the iPod, and with any luck, it will destroy the competition. Pipe dreams, I know.

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