The Product Life Cycle of

introduction
Zune is a portable digital media player from Microsoft.

The first version, released in November of 2006, is about the size of a deck
of playing cards and weighs 5.6 ounces.

To meet the power demands of the 3-inch LCD color display and, on some
models, integrated WiFi ( 802.11g ), the Zune uses a lithium-ion battery.

This screen is capable of playing videos and movies that have been
uploaded from a PC to the internal 30 GB hard drive.

Video content may be viewed in either a horizontal or vertical orientation.

The Zune connects to a computer with a proprietary external USB cord,

allowing users to create playlists, synchronize files and purchase music
from Microsoft's Zune Marketplace.
 growth
Microsoft launched several campaigns to jump-start the Zune. It had a
major campaign to promote Zune with "Music the way it wants to be"
as a major theme and "Welcome to the social" as an advertisement
tagline.

They advertised heavily on American college campuses and ran Zune-

related events to increase awareness of the product. The first week of
sales put it in second place of media players; however, it was only 9% of
the market, while the iPod held 63%.

During its launch week, the original Zune, now Zune 30, was the
second-most-sold portable media device with a 9% unit share in the
United States: behind the market-leading iPod's 63%.

For the first 6 months after launch, NPD Group figures show that the
Zune 30 achieved approximately 10% market share in the Hard Drive-
based MP3 market and 3% in the overall MP3 player market.
maturity
According to Bloomberg Television 1.2 million Zune
30 players were sold between November 2006 and
June 2007, surpassing a milestone.

A price drop on Amazon.com during November 2007

temporarily boosted the brown Zune 30 to the top
Sales Rank in electronics.

On May 6, 2008, Microsoft announced that it had

sold just over 2 million Zunes. Roughly one million of
those were sold since the second generation Zunes
launched in November 2007.
 decline
On May 22, 2008, it was reported that GameStop "has
decided to stop selling Microsoft's Zune players at its stores
due to what it sees as insufficient demand from customers.“

In January 2009, Microsoft's quarterly earnings filing with the

SEC indicated that Zune sales had fallen $100 million from
2007 to 2008 during the fourth quarter of the calendar year.

The Wall Street Journal estimated that sales appear to have

dropped from about $185 million during the holiday period in
2007 to just $85 million in 2008. This may be due to the
company's decision not to substantially update the Zune
hardware in the fall of 2008.

In 2011, it was announced Microsoft would discontinue the

player.
END. 