Spotted in Engadget:

Let it be known: we liked the Zune HD beforeit was popular, before all the poseurs jumped on the bandwagon with their tight-fitting jeans and their hairstyles. If various stores on the internetare to be believed, the Zune HD is selling out in a pretty big way. Amazon is listing a 1-2 month wait for the 16GB model and a 1-3 week wait for the 32GB, Best Buy has the player listed as "backordered," and New Egg shows "sold out." Microsoft's own store doesn't seem to be having these stocking problems, but we suppose that's to be expected.

The one thing competitors of Microsoft always need to do is pay attention - even when early attempts fail, the company has a history of plugging away until it works. Windows is the iconic example; versions 1 and 2 were used by "nobody", while Windows 3 was a breakout. The same kind of thing happened with Office, and it swept aside a number of good products when it broke out.

So this report on the ZuneHD is interesting. I don't see it overtaking the iPod anytime soon (there's really nothing like the Touch or iPhone from MS) - but they are highly likely to become the number two player now. I guess the question is whether they can internally get their act together, and plug the Windows Mobile effort in with the Zune (or vice versa), and come up with a full product line.

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