Could Dysfunctional In-Store Displays Be Hurting Zune Sales?

[Jason Dunn]

YouTube is an interesting place - some of the comments posted to our videos are questions from people looking for help, some are poorly written nonsense, and a few are insightful and allow me to learn something new about the product I'm covering. One such comment was posted by a user named <a href="http://ca.youtube.com/user/nilbog" target="_blank">nilbog</a> on my part one of my <a href="http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6mUCpTlvKJU#GU5U2spHI_4" target="_blank">Zune v2 Walkthrough video</a>:<br /><br /><em>&quot;This is an excelent video. You are the only one whose posted a movie showing the video capabilities of the 4g and 8g zunes. I currently have a 30g and have many movies on it, and needed desperatly to know how video looked on the smaller versions. All the displays at the stores don't work since they need to be synced to a computer and haven't yet so all they have is a stupid message saying please connect to computer or something like that. Looks like I'll be getting the 80g zune. Thanks.&quot;</em><br /><br />I had assumed that Zunes on display in the store had been synced with a desktop PC to &quot;unlock&quot; them, but it would seen that's not the case. It's really bizarre that the Zune has to go through this process to begin with - but if they're in this mode at store demo stations, it sure doesn't shine a favourable light on the Zune. Since I'm up in Canada where there are no Zunes quite yet (soon!), I can't verify how wide-spread this is. For those of you that have seen Zune demo units in retail stores, have you seen the same problem?

[LiFairy]

I live in NY outside of New York City and I have yet to even see a real display at all. The closest I came to it was a dummy 30gig. It was a horrible cardboard box resembling a zune. I'm constantly trying to get my friends to get a zune and then we go to the store and all we get is a few cases for the zune underneath an ipod display. I've been trying to find a store with the 80gig to see how it feels before mine is delivered but I cant find that either. A poster maybe...Sometimes a box in a display glass that they say they cant open to show you. If I didnt already own a 30gig I would probably just give up on zunes entirely due to this issue.

[cjhp]

Jason,
When I was considering the purchase of the Zune for my wife I went to the store to play around with them a bit. I have a Zune30 so it was mostly just to check them out. Yes this was the issue that I had at the Target and a Walmart where I was looking at them. I have also noticed the same issue with the Ipod and most other MP3 players. An exception to this is the Apple store and Best Buy. These stores both had content loaded so you could actually demo the devices. I don't understand why most places wouldn't load content or something on a demo model. Better yet they should arrive this way at the store it is a demo model after all. TVs for example have High Def content pipe to every single one of them in 95% of the stores that sale TVs.

[bleeman]

With the original Z30's the in-store demos worked great. However, with the release of the v2 models I have yet to see a working demo in any store, including Best Buy. I have yet to even see a Z80 at all. All the stores I have been in only appear to have the Z4 and Z8's available. This is in the Dallas/Ft Worth area.

To be honest, I seriously doubt I would have ever bought a Zune if I had to rely on the store displays I have seen. Even with the original Z30, most displays were hidden at the end of the aisle, behind a counter, if out at all. One of the biggest disappointments I recall was my local Best Buy. Even when a Zune rep was there to display the units they had him in an aisle one over from the rest of their MP3 players.

What is really sad, is probably the best display, and biggest selection of accessories, I have seen in the past year was the one at our local CompUSA during their store closing sale. Second to that would have to be Office Depot as they generally have one or more out on display with their other electronics.

[FiredCylinder]

Maybe retailers don't realize this, but MS has people that bring working displays to the stores, solely for display purposes. It seems like a lot of retailers are just using their box stock when their display ceases to function, thus a lot of them haven't been "unlocked."

[Macguy59]

At our local Best Buy the Zunes and iPods are displayed in exactly the same way

[faztang]

Did you ever go to a Best Buy, Target, or Circuit City to check out a Zune?
The "display" is a joke if there even is one. Usually it's a cardboard version of the device. Real ones are locked away. The only accessories I have ever seen are a few car chargers and 30gb cases. Zune displays are an afterthought.
I bought one and am pretty happy with it, but I got to be honest, there is no way Zune's are ever going mainstream. Not with the way they are marketed now.
I will probably never even buy a song from the Zune Marketplace. It is one of the most confusing online stores ever. Microsoft Points? Just sell songs for $99 cents like everywhere else. I go to Amazon.com now and get mine without DRM.