(earthtimes) - Microsoft Corp.'s just-debuted Zune music player edged out SanDisk Corp.'s Sansa to take the second place in the U.S. digital music player market after leader Apple Corp.'s iPod, according to a recent survey, reports Trend.
Market researcher NPD Group Inc., which carried out the study, said Wednesday Zune has annexed 9 per cent of the market in the week ended 18 November, after its 14 November launch. iPod continues to have a 63 per cent share in terms of units sold.
Zune had a 13 per cent share of the market in terms of dollar volume for the week, NPD said with iPod having 72.5 per cent.
NPD's director of industry analysis Ross Rubin said this is an impressive show and a successful launch week for the product, especially so because of the music player's single capacity configuration and a relatively high price point.
Microsoft has been trying to highlight Zune's features such as wireless song-sharing and a larger screen. The company is also planning to upgrade and expand the product line.
Sansa, till now No 2 in the segment, has an 8 per cent market share.
Zune has a 30-gigabyte hard drive and sells for $249, the same price as similarly featured iPods. Apple's advantage is that it has several versions, starting from $79. Its most popular iPod Nano starts at $149. Sansa is priced around $50.