Microsoft's marketing director Jason Reindorp has issued a statement on the company's projected sales for its new Zune digital music player, three weeks after the new device was launched into the US market. As previously reported, reports regarding uptake of the player have been mixed but the general consensus now is that sales were healthy over Thanksgiving weekend but that they have subsequently declined.
Nevertheless Reindorp remained cautiously optimistic of the player's long term chances in the iPod dominated market, again stressing that Microsoft are taking a realistic approach and do not expect to beat Apple's player overnight. Announcing that he expects to have sold over a million Zune players by the end of June next year, he told reporters: "Microsoft has a very realistic view of the landscape. There wasn't any foolish thought of coming in and turning the whole market around".
While Microsoft do seem to have been realistic about the digital music market since announcing their intention of launching Zune, and while they do seem to now be in it for the longhaul, some still question just how long Microsoft will tolerate operating in a market so dominated by their main competitor. By comparison to the 1 million Zunes Microsoft expect to sell between now and next July, analysts reckon Apple will sell 20 million iPods in just the current quarter.