The news today that the new Zune's from Microsoft were outselling Apple's own enigmatic iPod on Amazon.com got me wondering if this was some sort of trick by Microsoft to create artificial scarcity and repeat their smash of the Xbox 360 or if the player had finally caught on with consumers.

Introduced only a week ago, by this morning Microsoft 's heavily discounted, 30-gigabyte, $134 Zune digital media player was ranked the No. 1 bestseller in the Seattle online retailer's list of top-selling MP3 players in the "Electronics" category. Apple's four-gigabyte iPod nano was No. 2, followed by Apple's 80-gigabyte iPod "classic" at No. 3.

Last week, the Redmond computer giant introduced a new 80-gigabyte Zune player, but they're hard to find. Amazon's site on Monday said they're "temporarily out of stock" and no future shipping date was listed. Microsoft's own Zune site said the 80-gigabyte player can't be ordered until "early December."

In more ways than one, the new Zune's take a strong set of differentia from the first generation and execute more effectively while adding features that truly make it a hipper product. USAToday had a review recently:(read more)

The combination of Apple's casual marketing plan and high quality products have struck a target market that has been hard to reach for most major companies. The tech savvy Generation Y (aka Millennials) have been characterized as being brand apathetic, resenting obvious ad campaigns that target their psychological profile, who are now the Applephiles supporting everything Apple; they also happen to be 32% of the consuming population. Apple's advertisements lately have been mostly for the iPod/iTunes/iPhone line of products, but all that buzz has rubbed off on the less publicized Mac.

While recently Apple's Mac didn't have the most spectacular growth with 26% (compared to competitors, Acer saw an explosion of 164% and Tobisha saw a 54% growth) the story doesn't lie in any specific percentages, it's the fact that Apple understands its target market, which has allowed them to tie with Gateway for market share. But PC makers aren't the only ones that need to worry about Apple growth in their markets, the recent iPhone has demonstrated that any market in the technology sector could be threatened by Apple. The Millennials are a generation big enough to hurt a boomer brand simply by giving it the cold shoulder.

It is first noted in 1999 that Apple realized that targeting Gen Y could be extremely beneficial though they weren't exactly on target when Allen Olivo, Apple's previous senior director for worldwide marketing, said, 'For this generation, the computer is like a hot rod. Still, acknowledging Gen Y early on proved beneficial as some of history's biggest brands got started by bonding with boomers early and following them from youth into middle age.(read more)

The ridiculously over-hyped introduction of that most revolutionary of products burdened by such mediocre technical specs, Apple's iPhone is here at last and competitors are putting on a nice front by thanking Apple for building demand for smart phones in general.

Indeed, it seems consumers weren't content to wait the six months for the iPhone as Research In Motion (RIM) announced a three-for-one stock split net income grew a staggering 73% to $223.2 million or $1.17 a share from last year, as revenue climbed 76% to $1.08 billion.

For many, this was rather less surprising as RIM finally penetrated the consumer space with its cool new BlackBerry Pearl and Curve products, adding to its base of corporate customers and solidifying its position at the top of the heap of smartphone vendors... in North America at least.

But for those standing in line at AT&T and Apple retail stores in cities around the country (some since Monday) to get their hands on the new iPhone, RIM, Nokia, Palm, and Motorola all have smartphones that have gained a halo effect of exposure to the marketplace, just by giving consumers a less expensive, business savvy option. In fact, it can be argued by growing the pie for everyone with a rather mediocre product that simply delights prospective buyers with a much-improved user experience, Apple has in fact put wind in the sails of all wireless phone makers and carriers alike by disappointing power users unwilling to part with a few days wages in return for the first generation of anything.(read more)