"I think Xbox and Zune are great bellwethers for people to look at to say, if I have a dream and I have a plan to take an industry to the next level, I can do it here," commented Microsoft Vice President J. Allard, a co-founder of the Xbox business and leader of the Zune project. "The consumer we're targeting wants choice, and when you see us do something in the video play, you will see very, very broad choice. There are billions of people on planet earth who listen to music and (Apple's) sold 50 million gadgets. So we're in this early phase of digital music and portable entertainment. We believe in connection. We're launching a product with a a very simple idea. We're putting Wi-Fi in everything we do."

"We want to build community around new bands, new artists. Today, you really can't do that. What we're offering is connection. That's what the vast majority of people are doing online right now. Video is still really early," stated Scott Erickson, Microsoft's senior director of product management for Zune.

"Zune looks good but it needs to get better and better quickly to give Apple a run for the money," stated Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with IDC.

"Music is a wonderful shared experience, and it's become solitary over the last couple of years with the rise of portable devices," said Bryan Lee, corporate vice president in Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division.

"The entire Zune platform and brand is about a family of devices," said Chris Stephenson, Zune's general manager of global marketing, "There is even a possibility for a Zune phone."

"We won't be undercut by Apple," said Matt Jubelirer, a Microsoft product manager for the Zune, referring to the price of the device. "With the all-you-can eat model, we think this becomes compelling when paired with discovery. With a couple of buddies who own Zunes, you can grow and expand your musical tastes and collection far beyond what you previously imagined."

"Microsoft has to stay relevant to how people are accessing information and entertainment. The desktop is not the center of the world anymore," said Toan Tran, analyst at Morningstar.

"Everybody is kind of interested in the product right now, and certainly it facilitates the comparison between the two devices," said Stephen Baker, vice president of analysis at NPD Techworld. "It is a typical Microsoft thing. It is trying to do an awful lot of things to start from a position that took the rest of the market a while to reach. Microsoft is really trying to jump over what took Apple a long time to do."

Additional Zune details are available here.