14 DAY TRIAL // These days, with the iPhone taking all the headlines, the iPod seems a distant second. Considering that before the iPhone, the Zune was a distant second to the iPod, with the iPhone around, nobody even thinks about the Zune anymore, except for perhaps the people that own one.
People who own Zunes are thinking about them, namely about how to get rid of them. A recent survey conducted by the Eagle Research Group shows that most of Zune owners are not at all pleased with their devices. In fact, a staggering 70 percent of respondents intend to switch to an iPod or an iPhone when their current phone contract expires. It seems that there is very little brand loyalty for the Zune. The survey showed that the most compelling feature of the iPhone was the way it allows the user to interact with their music by touch navigating though the Cover Flow interface and the ability to communicate.
Of the 30 percent of people who had no intention to switch brands and get an iPhone, the most common reason given was the lack of adequate storage with 43 percent and the dislike of all things Apple with 22 percent. A good number of people who bought Zunes are now experiencing buyer's remorse, with 36 percent stating that they would not have purchased Zune if they knew Apple would produce such a ground breaking product as the iPhone. This is particularly interesting considering that Apple announced the iPhone well ahead of its release, at the beginning of the year. The Cupertino Company clearly anticipated that people would need to let their current contracts expire and be aware of the product in order to wait for it and not buy a competing one. Either Zune owners were not very up to date on what Apple was doing or they were not expecting Apple to actually deliver on the promises they made.