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EDIT (June 5th): The following is an announcement Ballmer never made. Maybe it was a misunderstanding of the editor who wrote the intro article, as in the interview body Ballmer says something completely different .

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Microsoft after releasing the "Everything is OK with Zune Sales" track some days ago with Robbie Bach announcing (almost) 1 million Zunes sold in USA, yesterday released the "We Invest, Not  Expanding" in an interview in wiwo.de :

Steve Ballmer said (Machine translation from German):

So far we lose money in the business, because we must invest. Therefore we decided not to go yet into new markets. When that will be the case, I cannot say today yet.

The original statement in German:

Zurückhaltend gibt sich Ballmer bei Aussagen zum Microsoft Musikspieler Zune. Die Markteinführung in Europa wird nicht wie erwartet im Herbst erfolgen: „Bisher verlieren wir in dem Geschäft Geld, weil wir investieren müssen. Daher haben wir uns entschieden, noch nicht in neue Märkte zu gehen. Wann das der Fall sein wird, kann ich heute noch nicht sagen“, rudert der Microsoft-Chef in der WirtschaftsWoche zurück.

I know, not a very pleasant announcement, but at least it is as much official as it can be because in the months before many Microsoft executives from around the world have talked and given different release dates for Europe and Worldwide.

We still don't know if this means no expansion at all for Zune in 2007 or if it will be released in some markets but not the European. Don't worry 2008 in near :)

Read the interview (German only): wiwo.de

More in English on  I4U and Heise .

[via PMPtoday ] 

Related articles:

No Zune in Europe? We got it wrong! (The correct article)

Update: Zune in Europe Q4 of 2007
Zune in Europe in the 1st half of 2007?
No Europe release earlier than 2008 ?!

And the winner is: Dene Schonknecht, saying 2008 will be the release date for Europe.