Apple Inc (AAPL)

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08:13 MSFT Sources: Microsoft ramps Zune, sales goal set in millions - AppleInsider (25.80 )

AppleInsider has learned that despite ongoing software interface testing, Microsoft this month began manufacturing its much-anticipated Zune digital media players overseas. People familiar with Microsoft's portable media strategy say the co commissioned the release of the 30GB, Wi-Fi-enabled media player to manufacturing partner Toshiba several weeks ago.

The software giant has since been slowly ramping production with hopes of selling 3 mln of the $299 players by the close of the holiday shopping season, those same people said. For Microsoft, that means selling at least a million of the players each month beginning in October. That's a little less than one fourth the number of iPods Apple Computer (AAPL) is expected sell during the same time period.

Though the majority of the players Apple is expected to sell will feature flash memory-based storage, not hard disk storage like that employed by Zune. Still, it's unclear in what month Zune will be introduced into the market and go on sale.