Zune in iPod's Shadow

Microsoft's Zune digital media player has debuted into 2007in the shadow of Apple's iPod. According to data released by the NPD Group, iPod has accounted for the lion's share of the holiday sales for digital media players. For the period of November 19 through December 23, iPod's market share was 57.3%.

Zune has failed to make a dent into iPod's dominance, but it has not failed to make its presence felt. With 2.8% of the media player sales during the holiday season, Zune finished 2007 in forth place, following Sandisk - 19.2% of units sold, and Creative - just 3.4%.

"All signs indicate that we are on track to meet our internal business projections, and we're confident that Zune will only continue to gain traction and momentum through the holiday season and beyond," stated Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp.

Microsoft's expectations of the performance Zune will deliver on the digital media player market are modest to say the least. The Redmond Company expects to sell a total of 1 million devices by June 2007.

"Microsoft did well for a newcomer, but it was competing in a segment that accounted for only one-fifth of all holiday sales," said Samir Bhavnani, Current Analysis Research Director. "Looking forward to 2007, I expect to see Microsoft offer a flash-based competitor to SanDisk and the iPod Nano/Shuffle in addition to a less bulky (hard-drive-based) player."

According to a study performed by Current Analysis, Zune has failed to climb in the top 10 selling digital music players list over the holiday season. Apple has a total of 8 devices in the list, while Sandisk has 2.