Microsoft Zune In Bad Shape As Apple's iPod Range Comes Out As Winner

It seems that sales of Microsoft’s Zune music player have been considerably affected in the last quarter with consumers showing an increasing preference towards the iPod. 

The dismal sales figures for Zune were revealed in Microsoft's latest 10-Q filing that mentioned "Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million or 54% reflecting a decrease in device sales."  

It is interesting to note that Zune’s poor performance have also erased nearly 60 percent of the company's earnings of its much vaunted Entertainment and Devices Division, which incidentally includes the highly popular Xbox gaming platform. 

In contrast during the same period Apple’s revenues from iPod continued to soar at a striking rate and a record sale figure of over 22 million units was recorded in the last quarter.  

Though there are no specific reasons that have been attributed to the poor sales figures for Zune, many analysts believe that the fact that Zune was shipping with a new unfamiliar desktop (Zune 2.0) may have caused some people to avoid it. 

Also the fact that iPod stayed in its familiar territory and the sheer user friendliness of Apple iTunes software is also likely to have been a major driver behind its increasing sales.  

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