Survey Claims 70% of Zune Owners Want Out

[David Tucker]

<p>According to a study put out by Eagle Research Group and pounced upon by every Apple fan site on the Internet, a whopping 70% of Zune owners are going to switch to an iPod or an iPhone when their current phone contract is up. That&rsquo;s about all I&rsquo;m going to bother quoting from this absolutely absurd story that&rsquo;s flying around the web. My advice is to not believe a word of this. The flaws in this whole thing are gaping holes wide enough to fly a Zune through! What problems do I have?</p><ul> <li>Take a look at <a href="http://erg-va.com/">Eagle Research Group&rsquo;s website.</a> I&rsquo;ve never heard of these guys before. Their website looks like something I designed when I was fifteen years old. This mysterious survey isn&rsquo;t available anywhere so I have no idea where anyone even got the information from.<br /> </li> <li>The numbers don&rsquo;t make any sense on the heels of Microsoft&rsquo;s announcement that not only had they met their goal of one million Zunes sold but they had surpassed it by 20%.<br /> </li> <li>And let&rsquo;s not forget the initial point of the survey. People were going to switch to an iPod or an iPhone when their current (phone) contract runs out. Why would anyone wait for their phone contract to run out before switching to an iPod. Either the language in the supposed study was poorly worded or there are actually people out there who seem to think an iPod needs a phone plan. That doesn&rsquo;t give me much confidence in the study. </li></ul>Without any details on this study, I personally wouldn&rsquo;t recommend giving it any weight. If ERG makes their study public then maybe I&rsquo;ll reconsider. I&rsquo;ve met very few people who own a Zune but of the people I have met, they have universally loved it. Something doesn&rsquo;t compute here.<p> </p>

[cheesmo7]

Dude,

I wouldn't buy an Apple product if they were the ONLY company to produce gasoline! I don't think there is any way this story is true, and like you said, what the $*$& does a phone contract have to do with a media player.

L8r,

[David Tucker]

I wouldn't say I would never buy an Apple product myself. Apple makes some high quality electronics. If I were Sony, I'd be worried. Microsoft products fit far better into my life and Apple dropped the ball by not offering subscription services long ago.

[Mike Temporale]

Yeah, that survey is crap. Besides the inaccuracies that you noted, Zune users wanting out has nothing to do with switching away from their current phone. There's no Zune phone as far as I know.

I read a survey that showed 95% of iPhone users plan to buy a Ford when their current contract expires. :D

[David Tucker]

Ha! I don't think that's hippy enough though. :D

[Macguy59]

to find anything that proves there were that many Zunes actually sold versus the number shipped.

[David Tucker]

You realize that that's how most companies report, right? How else is Microsoft supposed to report sales. They don't sell direct. Retailers won't let MS send them more if they can't sell them.

[Rocco Augusto]

Funny, I don't ever remember taking a survey... Did I? Nope. Can't say that I did.

I find it hard to believe that 70% of over 1 million people were surveyed and said they wanted a different media device. Then again, most non-Microsoft fans I know have been swallowing any information that bashes the company without any fact to back it up for years.

Speaking of which, did you hear?! Bill Gates eats babies! :eek:

I'm sure that will make it onto a couple of front pages in the next day or so ;)

[macattack]

Then again, most non-Microsoft fans I know have been swallowing any information that bashes the company without any fact to back it up for years.

Speaking of which, did you hear?! Bill Gates eats babies! :eek:

I'm sure that will make it onto a couple of front pages in the next day or so ;)

The fact of the matter is that it goes both ways: Microsoft fanboys, go way out of their way to defend some of the sorry Microsoft practices and products and to bash everything Apple does. Apple fanboys are the flip side of the same coin. There is no perfect, righteous, true, and glorious hardware/software companies. They make stuff. We buy it, but in the end its just stuff.

For me personally, Apple computer products often seem to fulfill my needs better and accomplish what I need done in an very efficient manner. But I also own a MS Office license because there's no better office application suite out there, and I have used so many iterations of Palm-size PC/PocketPC/Windows Mobile devices that I've lost count. If someone wants to completely ignore Apple products because they're not Microsoft, you'll miss out on some good stuff.

As far as the poll results, I agree that the poll questions may not have been worded properly. On the other hand, the folks providing the summary of the results may have just done a poor job of trying to summarize a much larger poll in a couple sentences. Look at who commissioned the poll in the first place, and you'll have a good idea of whether there was any intended skew. Like it or not, it may still point to the possibility that there are a large number (doubtfully 70%) of Zune users who are less than happy with their purchase.

[David Tucker]

The fact of the matter is that it goes both ways: Microsoft fanboys, go way out of their way to defend some of the sorry Microsoft practices and products and to bash everything Apple does. Apple fanboys are the flip side of the same coin. There is no perfect, righteous, true, and glorious hardware/software companies. They make stuff. We buy it, but in the end its just stuff.

For me personally, Apple computer products often seem to fulfill my needs better and accomplish what I need done in an very efficient manner. But I also own a MS Office license because there's no better office application suite out there, and I have used so many iterations of Palm-size PC/PocketPC/Windows Mobile devices that I've lost count. If someone wants to completely ignore Apple products because they're not Microsoft, you'll miss out on some good stuff.

Definately. I don't ignore anything based on the company. Just if it fills my needs. I would guess that far more Apple diehards are anti-Microsoft though than the other way around.

As far as the poll results, I agree that the poll questions may not have been worded properly. On the other hand, the folks providing the summary of the results may have just done a poor job of trying to summarize a much larger poll in a couple sentences. Look at who commissioned the poll in the first place, and you'll have a good idea of whether there was any intended skew. Like it or not, it may still point to the possibility that there are a large number (doubtfully 70%) of Zune users who are less than happy with their purchase.

I really doubt there is a large number. The MP3 player for the most part just works. And since it just works and that's what most people want I just can't imagine that there is a large number of people who even think about it.

[Damion Chaplin]

I would guess that far more Apple diehards are anti-Microsoft though than the other way around.

Merp. Gonna have to disagree with you there. Based on market share alone, I would guess there are thousands more MS diehards than Apple diehards. ;)

[David Tucker]

Well, that may be...but I don't see them doing as much Apple bashing as the other way around.

[Timbo]

70% Sounds a bit high, however I am among that 70%. I wanted to love the Zune, and I tried hard. I think the Zune has a lot going for it and in certain ways I believe it is BETTER that the iPod. However, me being a podcast junkie, it's just not working out. I hate having to use another app to download podcasts, and the video conversion that takes forever has been the deal breaker for me (along with the lack of accessories available).

I really like the device as a whole, but I think I've waited as long as I want ( 8 months) for podcast support and accessories such as a car kit/cables.

[ctitanic]

I'm also trying here very hard to love Zune but every time that I have to deal with the Zune Software I want and I love more my iPod.
Zune software reminds me the first versions of ActiveSync, if you are lucky it syncs.

1-I get artworks in not synchronized all time.
2-I get the same artwork with different artist just because they have an album with the same name (Greatest Hits, for example).
3-I have songs duplicated in the Zune Library just because I moved the file from one HDD to another HDD. And I can't get rid of the old song listing.
4-Smartlist does not include "OR", for example, you want a smartlist with songs with Genre = "Classical" OR Genre="Opera". You can't, at least I have not found a way to do it other than create a list with Genre "is not"= Pop and Genre "is not"= Jazz, etc, listing all my genres in my library to get what I need.
5-There is not a way to set the Zune to play for some time and then go off.
6-Every time I change something in the tags of a song I have to specifically add that song to my sync list because if I do not do it my zune wont be updated with my changes. That includes my Ratings.

[MrJoe]

Jump ship? My Zune still has quite a bit of life in it, but I'm not so loyal that I wouldn't look to see what the competition offers when the time comes. If Microsoft follows the same path that Apple did with its iPod in its early days and fixes all of these little problems, I would buy another Zune when this one poops out.