The channel checkers have found the following checking retailers around the world for Zune release dates. Maybe these are "false alarms" but for now is better than nothing!

The question asked was:  “When will the Microsoft Zune MP3 player be available in the store?”  Many retailers did not know when the Zune would launch but a few offered some interesting insight, including the following key data points:

PC City (Paris, France) said that they expected to have Zune’s available at the start of 2007 (which we interpret to mean 1/1/07).

Comet (Cardiff, UK) said they “will be stocking it sometime, hopefully very soon”  but no definite data given for launch in UK.

PC World (London, UK) January 15th

Euronics (Torino, Italy) said after December 15th of this year, echoing our earlier data point also from a retailer in Italy.

Atelco (Hamburg, Germany) Store employee assumes they will have Zune in early December. Could not provide a firm data but expectation seems to be for December.

Saturn (Graz, Austria) - Had no idea about the Zune or its availability.

Summarizing, it looks like January 15th roughly is the date for France and the UK while early to mid-December seems to be the expectation from retailers in Italy and Germany.  While a little contradictory it seems to us that it is clear that the Zune will not be a Christmas item in Europe as the earliest launch dates seem too late.

And if you ask for my opinion, if it was Microsoft to release Zune in 2006 in Europe they should have already mentioned somewhere the world "Europe". I think Microsoft will wait and see the Christmas sales reports in US before going abroad with Zune.

You can read the full article here and its update here.