Zune Thoughts: Zune Hurt iPod... A Little

"In November of 2005, only Creative existed to challenge Apple’s throne atop the hard drive digital music player market. At that time, the iPod line owned 86% of US sales, with Creative coming in a (very) distant second at 7%. This year, after a generally slow start, the Zune has further eroded the iPod’s dominance. Although Cupertino execs are unlikely to fret just yet, the iPod’s HD share is now 82%, with the Zune and Creative HD coming in at 9% and 4% respectively."

With the introduction of Zune this holiday season, Apple's iPod has at least suffered a little flesh wound. iPod's market dominance of Hard Drive based players has dropped 4% over last year, with Zune replacing Creative as a very distant second. Personally I think next holiday season should be much more telling for the future of the market. By that time Microsoft should have Zune's feature set more rounded out, and hopefully beefed up the product line, and Apple might have a return volley for Zune.