The original failed to be a threat to the market leader ipod.

I wonder how this new model will fare?

Edit: It really doesn't seem to have penetrated the market well, I have never even seen a Zune before, apart from in pictures.

I see Zunes in stores a lot. I haven't really seen more than one in the wild though. I'm a Creative person...I don't use mp3 players too much, but I borrow my sister's video Zen sometimes, and that's definitely what I would get if I got a video mp3 player. Creative players have far less restrictions.

MSFT sure is persistent in this department of their company, thats for sure.

As a solely iPod owner I'm actually excited about the newest Zune and thinking about picking one up. The first one was a respectable first entry imo but after seeing the pics and specs of the newest version I'm impressed. There is a video of the UI out there too which looks pretty slick.

The horrible quality control of iPod's has turned me off from anything they're offering this generation. With the newer gens it's only seemed to have gotten worse. Before the 6th gen I've had: (4th gen photo, 2 x minis, 1st gen nano, 2nd gen nano, and 5th gen 30gb). My girlfriend is absolutely fed up with anything apple and I'll be replacing her 3 month old 2nd gen nano with one of the new flash based Zunes this Christmas. This is her 3rd ipod and have had nothing but problems with all of them. From there I will decide if it's worth replacing my 30gig and all the iPod integration I have (Home theater, PC, and Car kits).