Holiday Zune volume, revenues plummet
January 23rd 2009
On Tuesday, Apple again announced record quarterly profits on record quarterly revenues. Further, the company's still dominant iPod managed to post a 3 percent unit volume rise, marking yet another new high for Apple, though revenue fell 16 percent in the fourth quarter.
All-in-all, the mothership managed $3.3-billion in revenues on the back of its iPod product line in 2008's final frame.
Thereupon, News.com reports that Microsoft's Zune media player experienced a startling drop in revenue of $100-million or 54 percent. Moreover, total Zune revenues for Q4 were less than $100-million.
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"It's the category, it's the business, it's the economy," said Zune marketing director Adam Sohn, noting that despite a software upgrade, Microsoft entered the holidays with essentially the same hardware it had a year earlier.
"We met our internal plan for (the) holiday," he said, adding that a year ago the company was also boosted by strong sales of a heavily discounted, older 30GB hard drive-based model.
In related news, Microsoft has said it will eliminate thousands of jobs this year, including over 1,000 right away.
Also, Creative Technology announced earlier that it had sacked about half its staff last year and sold off its manufacturing business.
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