Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that it expects to sell 1 million of its new Zune music players through the first half of 2007.  Apple should sell another 20 million units in the same timeframe.

Based on initial sales figures, the Zune is far from being a blockbuster.

Unit sales in the Zune’s first two weeks were roughly the same. The Zune ranked No. 2 among all MP3 portable music players in its first week of availability, but promotions for rival devices — including much cheaper players — during the “Black Friday” week of Thanksgiving had Zune slipping to No. 5.

I just checked at Amazon and the black Zune was the 66th-best selling
item in electronics, well behind competing music players from Apple,
SanDisk Corp. and Creative Technology Ltd.

In the Zune vs. iPod war, round one easily goes to Apple.