Zune zooms, but Apple still outshines other hardware makers in traffic

Microsoft Corp.’s Zune site, which sells digital music for the portable music player, registered the fastest growth last month in unique visitors among hardware manufacturers, an increase of 184% over May 2007. But Apple Inc.’s site easily held on to its top spot, growing a healthy 12% and attracting more than twice as many visitors as No. 2 Hewlett-Packard.

The top 10 hardware manufacturer destinations in May with unique visitors in millions this year and last and growth from prior year, according to Nielsen Online were:

• Apple Inc., 50.53, 44.98, 12%
• Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P., 19.78, 16.83, 18%
• Dell Inc., 14.82, 16.64, -11%
• Sun Microsystems Inc., 4.70, 3.71, 27%
• Gateway Inc., 2.14, 1.61, 33%
• Zune, 2.04, .72, 184%
• Nintendo, 1.99, 1.94, 3%
• International Business Machines Corp., 1.95, 2.36, -17%
• Xbox, 1.78, 1.67, 6%
• Simplyink Inc., 1.28, N/A, N/A

By length of visit, the top 10 online hardware manufacturer shopping destinations in May (minutes:seconds), according to Nielsen Online, were:

• Apple Inc., 66:02
• Zune, 35:26
• Dell Inc., 20:06
• International Business Machines Corp., 18:58
• Nintendo, 14:13
• Xbox, 13:22
• Palm Inc., 13:13
• Creative, 10:22
• Gateway Inc., 9:53
• Hewlett-Packard Development Corp. L.P., 9:00

The top 10 retail goods and services segments in terms of online ad impressions (in millions) in May, according to Nielsen data, were:

• Books, Movies & Music, 11,281.94
• Miscellaneous Services, 3,764.54
• Flowers & Gifts, 2,472.47
• Home Improvement, 2,357.84
• Auctions, 1,631.81
• Apparel & Jewelry, 1,317.34
• Electronics, 1,267.03
• Personal Care, 835.43
• Recreational Gear, 668.93
• Domestics, 456.99