Verily I say unto thee, that Linonut spake thusly:
> * Tim Smith peremptorily fired off this memo:
>> In article <8047807.qXN9oIIz2j@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Roy Schestowitz
>> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> Zune Sales Still In the Toilet
>>
>> Yup. They have only achieved third place, way behind Apple, and
>> just slightly behind SanDisk.
>>
>> Of course, if that counts as "in the toilet", then how would you
>> describe sales of those various Linux-based players you have touted
>> in the past as sure to be iPod killers? You know--the ones that
>> are well behind Zune?
Irrelevant. Linux is /not/ a DAP manufacturer, and neither should
Microsoft be, but in their typically greedy fashion they tried to
assimilate the DAP market, and spectacularly /failed/, just like they
did with the games console market; the Search and Ad market; and indeed
everything else they've ever tried - outside of Windows and Office.
Oh and your "glass half full" way of looking at Microsoft's failure is
hilarious:
[quote]
According to an Associated Press article citing Jason Reindorp, Zune’s
director of product marketing, the device has sold “just north of two
million” between its debut in November 2006 and May 2008.
...
The 152 million iPods sold (157.4 million if you count the iPhone), of
which only 5.7 million were sold before 2005, makes it particularly
laughable that NBC has attached itself to the Zune store
[/quote]
2M:157M is not just third place Smith, it's a /joke/, especially when
the bulk of that supposed 2 Million was actually just "transferring
product to a retailer’s warehouse", i.e. channel stuffing.
> Doesn't matter to Microsoft, Tim, since I doubt they care about niche
> players
Actually the Vole /is/ extremely concerned about niche players, which is
why they expend so much effort attacking them. What's that little ditty
about Microsoft being a "two bit company that can't stand one bit of
competition" again? It's absolutely true. Look at the way they attack
Linux, with its supposed 1% market share. They are marauders, thugs,
monopolists and gangsters - that's how they operate their bizniz®.
The one and only reason Microsoft created the Zune, is because the iPod
is made by a competing OS vendor. If the biggest selling DAP on the
market was a Windows-only device made by a non-OS vendor like Creative,
then the Zune would have never existed - you can be sure of that.
Microsoft's motive was never about making money (in this instance), it
was purely about destroying a competing OS ... it's /always/ about
destroying a competing OS ... it's /always/ about /destruction/.
.----
| "[Microsoft] are willing to lose money for years and years just to
| make sure that you don't make any money, either." ~ Bob Cringely.
`----
http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2007/07/cringely-the-un.html
OTOH Free Software developers typically do /not/ care about market
share, since they create software for it's own sake; for the love of it;
for the technical challenge and the fun. As a Free Software contributor,
it really doesn't matter a damn to me if a Linux-based DAP sells a
Billion units or just /one/, since I am not a greedy monopolist trying
to destroy every other vendor in the market.
The Trolls are completely wasting their time attacking Linux with this
"market share" bullshit, since it is completely irrelevant to the ethos
of Free Software. For those companies that wish to take Free Software
and run their business with it ... good luck to them, but the success or
failure of those companies is still completely irrelevant to the goals
of Free Software. The software is still /Free/ regardless of how many,
or how few, people use it. Mission accomplished.
OTOH Microsoft's "mission" is monopoly, so they can turn out slop that
everyone will be forced to use regardless. This way they are guaranteed
revenue; with little investment of resources; and little or no skill.
But the only way they can guarantee that monopoly is to destroy every
other vendor, and the greedier (and more desperate) they get for money -
the more market sectors they try to monopolise.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, their original "plan" only really worked
the first time around, with the con-game they played with IBM and Gary
Kildall. It's paid out for a long time, but now the cash (and strategy)
is failing. In fact they've only managed to last /this/ long because
they abused their ill-gotten power and money to bribe; corrupt; extort;
threaten; litigate; spread FUD; and otherwise damage or destroy their
competition.
Microsoft's abysmal failures, in every endeavour other than Windows and
Office, proves that their time is up. This latest blow is just one of
many signalling the end, as if their recent 30 Billion USD loss wasn't a
clear enough signal. Good riddance.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| 'When it comes to knowledge, "ownership" just doesn't make sense'
| ~ Cory Doctorow, The Guardian. http://tinyurl.com/22bgx8
`----
Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.23.8-63.fc8
10:46:10 up 142 days, 7:22, 5 users, load average: 0.15, 0.07, 0.09
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