Since Microsoft launched its Zune portable media player November 2006 as its rival to the iPod, it sold 1 million players by mid 2007 and recently just past the 2 million sales mark. The iPod series on the other hand has such a large market share that it sold 10.6 million units in the first quarter of 2008 alone.
GameStop, which claims to be the world's largest specialist retailer of games, has decided to no longer stock the Microsoft Zune series, after noticing sales of the player on the decline in its stores. The videogame retailer has already cleared its stock of the Zune series from its stores, saying that it did not have the appeal as GameStop anticipated, according to a GameStop spokesperson.
Microsoft still believes that its recently introduced new Zune line-up will turn around the falling sales, with the help of Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and other retail chains that sell its series. One significant issue here is that as the second generation of Zunes was introduced late last year, I cannot see them suddenly taking off now or in the near future unless Microsoft manages to come up with something to make the Zune a "must have" product.
