An executive of Microsoft Corp.’s entertainment and devices division said in an interview that the company had managed to sell over one million Zune digital media players since its introduction. The company is pleased with the results, however, it does not claim that they are spectacular.

“We’re very pleased with the progress. We’ve sold a little over a million Zunes. In the category we're in, the hard-disk-based category, we've got about 10% market share. It’s a good start. It's not an overwhelming start. I’m not going to pretend it’s some gigantic move,” said Robert Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment & devices division, in an interview with San Francisco Chronicle news-paper.

Microsoft’s Zune player is available in three colours with a duotone approach on each. The device has a 3” screen, contain a 30GB hard disk drive as well as some functionality, not currently available on competing products, such as Apple iPod or Creative Zen, including ad-hoc music sharing between a group of people in the range of the device, FM as well as digital radio, thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity. The cost of the player is $249.

Microsoft’s Zune music player is not a truly affordable solution, yet, the community seem to be quite positive about the device, which costs significantly more than Apple’s most popular iPod nano players, which also appear to be the most popular overall. Still, Microsoft is not going into the market of flash-based media players just now, according to Mr. Bach. Moreover, Microsoft is unlikely to unveil Zune phone, despite of the fact that cell phones are currently the most popular music devices and outsell typical digital media players by a factor of three.

“In the phone space, we’re very comfortable with the model we’ve chosen. We think phones are deeply personal. Some people want a flip phone, some people want a candy bar (shaped phone), some people want a QWERTY keyboard, some people want a touch screen, some people want music phones – people have different needs. We work with handset manufacturers and operators to produce that web of offerings, while still producing the same consistent software so people can get done what they need to get done regardless of which phone they choose,” Mr. Bach said.