Zune 2: Industry comment

Steve Evans, director of research, Entertainment Media Research, www.entertainmentmediaresearch.com:

"The market for personal digital music players continues to expand. Our findings from our 2007 Digital Music Survey show that 77 per cent of music consumers in the UK own a personal digital player and that ownership has increased year-on-year with no sign of slowing. Indeed, even though ownership levels are high, they are far from saturated as intention levels have never been higher. Clearly it’s a vibrant and growing market.

"Whilst the iPod has hitherto dominated market share, the Zune will find itself increasingly competing with mobile phone devices in addition to Apple. The market for music on the mobile and mobile downloading has not grown at a rapid pace up until now but as providers make it easier for consumers to download music on-the-go at a reasonable and transparent price, the market could potentially take off, making the challenge for the Zune much more difficult."