This one is cute. The following report from the UK version of Macworld tries to suggest that Microsoft's recent successes with the Zune are temporary and have already passed. They may be temporary, and certainly the lack of Zune 80 models is problematic. But watch how this one bends the truth:
While Microsoft's Zune may have briefly toppled Apple's iPod from the top of the Amazon.com bestseller's list, US customers are having a hard time getting hold of the new version of the product.
Amazon briefly showed the last-generation Zune as its best-selling MP3 player earlier this week.
Did it now? Aside from the poor use of the word "briefly" in two sentences in the row, I take exception with the second of these statements. Why? Because I just looked at Amazon's list today, and the Zune is still number one.So, yeah, I get it: 7 of the top 10 MP3 players on Amazon are iPods. But two of them are Zunes. (The other is a SanDisk player.) And let's be honest here, Microsoft never said it was going to unseat Apple this Christmas. What they've said is that they're seeking to make this is a two-company race across the board, just as they did with hard drive-based MP3 players last year. That appears to be happening.
The real story here, of course, isn't that Apple is still doing great, though one might understand why Macworld would push such a concept. It's that those two Zune players in the top 10 on Amazon aren't even the new ones. They're both Zune 30 models that have been discounted since last year. Yikes.
So how are the new Zunes fairing on Amazon? Not too well: The Zune 80, which isn't even available, is number 13, while the highest-ranked Zune 4/8 model is number 69 from what I can tell. That doesn't seem right, but that's what it says.