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Our survey is now complete. We asked retailers around the world, although primarily focused on the U.S. since the Zune is not available in most overseas markets, which MP3 players were selling best, if they sold the Zune and which one they personally recommended.The final results are as follows. 81% of respondents told us they reccomended an iPod with the 30GB or 60GB model most commonly suggested. This differs from our earlier survey suggesting that the iPod Nano and Shuffle would be the hottest iPod models. 11% of survey respondents suggested the Creative Micro Zen MP3 player, primarily because functionality was close to the iPod and Zune and was cheaper to buy. Finally, Zune was recommended by only 7% of our respondents.

Our goal at Channel Checkers is to be the source for primary channel data. We leave the analysis to you the reader. Our two preview posts on this survey led to quite a bit of traffic and comments suggesting we are biased in our surveys. We are not dedicated Zune or iPod fans. We are fans of good solid original data that readers can use to draw useful conclusions.

Now to the rest of the survey. On the question of was the Zune selling well or not we got more positive feedback from the channel. 40% of respondents who carried the Zune said that the product was selling well. In many of these cases the respondents clarified that Zune did not sell in as much volume as iPod’s but that meaningful unit sales were occuring for the Zune. At Best Buy’s specifically, 50% of respondents said that the Zune was selling well while 50% said it was not selling well. One Best Buy respondent told us “Yes {we’ve sold alot of Zune’s}, it was also Black Friday so {we} sold alot of electronics products”

iPod’s were recommended for many reasons including flat out better product, iTunes, more accessories, been around longer, etc. When other brands were mentioned price was the most often cited reason for a customer being steered to a non-Apple MP3 player. Creative, Sandisk, Transcend were all recommended as cheaper alternatives. our survey left us wondering - What ever happened to iRiver? The once number 3 MP3 player manufactured has not been mentioned by any respondent in any survey on MP3 players all year.

Our survey results are not a big surprise although we might have expected the Zune to perform a little bit better. It does seem as though Best Buy is selling decent volumes of Zune’s but that other major retailers like Circuit City may be moving far fewer for some reason. It is clear that iPod dominates mind share among those who sell electronics to the public and whether or not one believes that the iPod is the best MP3 player device it will clearly be the most recommended for the forseeable future.

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