BusinessWeek on Zune...

https://yahoo.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2006/tc20061207_744659.htm

This is the quote that does it for me:

"As for chipping away at the iPod, that's not even on the radar, even in Redmond. "We wanted to get out and be relevant in the space," Microsoft's Lee says. That grounding will give the company the foundation on which to build its Zune business. "We're pretty fast learners," Lee says."