Apple v Microsoft awareness issues

Via Infectious Greed.

A-T-A-R this!:

In addition, students were asked about their buying habits of MP3 players and online music. Of those students who own a MP3 player, 82 percent indicated that they also own some form of iPod, which is up from 79 percent in fall 2006. For online music services, 89 percent of students indicated that they use iTunes, slightly down from 91 percent in fall 2006. In total, 84 percent of the students had heard of Apple’s iPhone and 25 percent said they would pay $500 for the iPhone

That is a mind-boggling awareness rate. Compare with Vista:

According to a recent Harris survey. While an ad blitz nearly doubled recognition of the new Microsoft OS from 47 to 87 percent between December and March, the number of existing users who intended to upgrade had actually dropped over the four-month period, only 12 percent had said they would upgrade to the OS within the next year.

Vista marketing budget: upwards of $500M.

iPhone marketing budget: ~$25M + $400M in free publicity.

Voice v Noise!

Zune Marketplace won’t let people register

During times when every little iTunes change causes a media uproar, check out how much coverage this has received (hint: very little):

Zune owners in Washington, D.C., might be out of luck if they want to use the related Zune Marketplace online music service. An apparent glitch is keeping people from signing up for the service with credit cards that have billing addresses in any one of four Washington, D.C., ZIP codes.

Another sign that no one gives an eff. I am guessing that this isn’t a big deal because all music on the Zune is pirated anyway.

Microsoft sells 100th Zune

LOL!

The sale of the 100th Zune is a sign that it has captured a secure foothold in the market and it totally doesn’t suck,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft puttin’ the squeeze on

APC:

Computer makers have been told they’ll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems.

Reacting to this, no doubt:

The company [Seagate] cited lower-than-expected demand for 3.5-inch hard drives, and a more aggressive than expected pricing environment for high capacity 3.5-inch drives. The company said it does not think it has lost any market share from the previous quarter. The implication: weak PC demand. Some analysts are blaming the slower-than-expected uptake of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Vista operating system, a problem that lately has bedeviled the DRAM sector.