I am not sure whether it is officially launched in India or not but Zune
is now available on some retail stores in India (for example: at heera panna mall in Mumbai) for a price of around Rs. 16,000 for a 30 GB model.

Similar 30 GB iPod in India is being sold at a price of Rs. 13,000 only.

Why people are loving their Zune players? Here are some of the comments posted by Zune users:

I have both Zune as well as iPod. But nowadays I am loving my Zune more than iPod because Zune marketplace gives me option of “unlimited downloads” which is not available in Apple iPod.

I love the big bright screen of my black zune. I also love the big album art. I can select media items next to each other without passing them by 10 times like in iPod.

I love the large screen of Zune and the FM tuner. Yes, I use the tuner a lot.

I got a zune on the first day, very excited about the hype. I must say that this thing is truely a dream. I have had no issues, and have even met up with a few zuners on campus. I look fwd to microsoft smaller flash base model. As for the marketplace, it is getting better everyday! I love the subscription model! The sound quality is wonderful too! FM tuner is really cool in the city where stations broadcast over the airwaves what song and artist is playing

I love the bigger screen, same battery life, and I like the operating sysmte of Zune better. The wireless is a great feature (maybe not fully useful yet, but updates happen) and the FM radio is excellent.

Microsoft said today that it expects around 1 million Zune player sales in the first six months of 2007. In comparison to Apple’s iPod, which sold 39 millions iPods in last 12 months, it is vary small figure. But, Bryan Lee, corporate VP for Microsoft’s Entertainment Group thinks, “We think that’s actually pretty awesome.” But he also said that he expects his company to be eventually a leader in it.

As of now, the Zune media player is only available in USA. Its sales figure are expected to go high as and when it goes international. But if we believe its initial sales numbers, it is not expected to be any blockbuster.

Zune Media Player sales for the first week are being considered good by an executive at NPD Group, the market research firm. Ross Rubin told that in major US electronic stores Zune is second in sales, just next to Apple iPod. He also estimated the Zune market share to be at around nine percent, which is not bad at all.

Today, CNN also has a story telling “Zune is number 2 Digital Audio player in its first week of sales”. Not a bad start at all. But at Amazon online store, iPod is still holding 8 out of 10 top slots. Other two are held by SanDisk. Zune is not in top 10 mp3 models there. Some people suspect that it may be because of the sales division in 3 different colors of Zune mp3 players.

Will iPod users shift from iPod to Zune? If yes, do they have to buy all the songs they bought from iTunes, again from Zune Marketplace? Hmm… That is a big problem. But it seems Microsoft has found the solution for it.

To attract current iPod users to Zune, Microsoft is allowing the users of iPod to download the songs which they have bought from iTunes, free of cost from their Zune marketplace. It seems, Microsoft Zune Marketplace will scan iTunes store and will automatically add all those songs to your Zune Marketplace account, which you bought previously from iTunes. So all those songs will be free to you from Zune (Though Microsoft still has to pay to copyright holders of the songs.)

This is a very good strategy, though Microsoft will loose a lot of money in it, but switching users from iPod to Zune to gain bigger pie of mp3 players market may be a good strategy. Time will tell.

RealNetworks on Monday revealed that its partnering with SanDisk to create a digital media player that would compete with iPod and Zune. This will include 32 hours of pre-loaded music from artists signed with EMI Recorded Music, SONYBMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, as well as independent labels.

This Rhapsody-based Sansa e200 digital media player is expected to be out around holiday season. It is expected to have 8 GB of flash memory and the ability to add 2 GB more through memory slot. This will have microphone to record and FM tuner as well. You can even record songs from FM tuner. Battery life is expected to be around 20 hours.

According to engadget, with the wireless off, Microsoft Zune will have around 12 hours of music playback (at 128Kbps) or 3.5 hours of video playback. If we compare it with 30BG iPod (which has 14 hours of music playback or 4 hours of video playback) it is little on the lesser side.

This little lesser battery life of Zune is due to it bigger screen size. Lets hope and see whether Microsoft fixes this up before retailing the Zune.

The iPod has a new enemy Zune from Microsoft coming in the town. Zune will be released on November 14, 2006 and will cost around $299 as per by Microsoft.

Here is the quick feature list of Zune:

• Huge 30 GB Hard Drive for 7,500 songs storage
• Can play WMA, MP3, AAC, JPEG,WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 media
• Big 3 inch video LCD 320×240
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) connectivity with other Zune players.
• FM Radio Tuner
• 3 Colors: White, Black, Brown
• Can Output to TV
• Song site like itune
• DJ Mode
• Podcast playback
• Free 3 day playback of songs send to you by friends
• Can connect to XBOX for streaming
• Many preloaded music mp3 and videos
• Quite light weight, 5.6 ounces in weight

So is iPod ready to take on Zune? Apple, are you listening?

The iPod, the digital music player beloved of everyone from Coldplay’s Chris Martin to President George Bush, is in danger of losing its sheen. Sales are declining at an unprecedented rate. Industry experts talk of a ‘backlash’ and of the iPod ‘wilting away before our eyes’. Most disastrously, Apple’s signature pocket device with white earphones may simply have become too common to be cool.

Read full story here