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GameStop has decided to stop selling the Microsoft’s iPod
killer, Zune, due to its poor performance in terms of sales.
Last year Microsoft has announced that its Zune has sold one
million in just six months after the launch, but since then it seems like the
sales have slowed down considerably. It took almost a year for Zune to reach its
second million of units sold.
Late last year, Microsoft has revamped its Zune lineup by
introducing new models and a brief period it seemed like the company had found its
way to success.
In November 2007 the 80 GB version of Zune media player
ranked as the No. 1 bestseller in Amazon’s list of top-selling MP3 players and
it was a sold-out at various retailers in the US
such as Best Buy or Circuit
City.
However, Zune failed to be a match the iPod sales. According
to the latest financial results announced by Apple in the second quarter of 2008
the company sold 10,644,000 iPods.
Despite GameStop’s decision, Microsoft seems to be determined
to stand by its Zune. Adam Sohn, Microsoft's Zune marketing manager, noted that
Zune sales "have seen good momentum" during the last few months.
Also,
at the beginning of this month Microsoft has expanded the content available on Zune
online store, by signing a new distribution deal with NBC.
Video titles from COMEDY CENTRAL, FUNimation Entertainment,
MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz Media, Turner Broadcasting, UFC, VH1 and
others are now available on Zune store. Until this deal, only music videos were
available on Zune Marketplace.
Last year, speaking about Zune, Microsoft's Entertainment
& Devices Division President Robbie Bach said that Microsoft aims to
release a new Zune every year.
Writing on CNET’s blog, Digital Noise, Matt
Rosoff noted that Microsoft has been planning some sort of update for the 2008 holiday season.
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