Zune8 now $179

[Adam Krebs]

<p>"<em>It's been slowly spreading from one retailer to another today, but it looks like the Zune 8 is now officially just $179. No word on what spurred the $20 price drop -- hey, Microsoft <em>is</em> feeling rather <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/01/microsoft-offers-44-6-billion-for-yahoo/">generous</a> today -- but if you were looking for 8GBs of the social, now seems like as good a time as any. Just don't spend the coin you save on a tattoo, okay? We'll cry.</em>"</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/zt/auto/1201912066.usr495.jpg" border="1" alt="" /></p><p>That's great news! I tried to check on ZuneOriginals.net to see if the price was affected there, but it seemed to be convinced my vanilla IE7 install wasn't compatible. Can anyone check on it and let me know?</p>

[Sven Johannsen]

Yup, Zune 8 is $179 at ZuneOriginals, including the tatoo ;)
4 is still $149. Guess there really wasn't $50 difference between a 4G memory module and an 8G one. IMHO, not sure there is $30 difference in bulk price, but hey, can't have just one choice, and the price needs to be a bit different, or you won't sell any small ones.

[Jason Dunn]

I wonder if the 4 GB Zune will ever hit the $99 price point, or if that's a price point Microsoft doesn't want to play at and they'll just ramp up the storage next gen to 8 GB / 16 GB (or something similar) while keeping the same basic price points?

[Macguy59]

Jason

Any thoughts as to why Zune v2 are not selling better? I really thought they would. Especially the flash based players.

[Jason Dunn]

Any thoughts as to why Zune v2 are not selling better?

I haven't heard any sales numbers yet - why, what have you heard? If you think that a price cut means they aren't selling well, that's not always the case...

[Macguy59]

I haven't heard any sales numbers yet - why, what have you heard? If you think that a price cut means they aren't selling well, that's not always the case...

Purely unscientific census. Of the retailers that sell them in the town I live (Target, Walmart, Circuit City and Best Buy) the respective electronic managers all tell me they have been disappointing. We are a college town with the University of Illinois and Parkland Community college with a population base of 146,000 when the students are in session.