"You couldn't get a more entrenched competitor, but we feel really good about the first steps that we've taken."

Reindorp said Microsoft was not yet ready to officially announce when it would launch the service in Europe but it could possibly be out before the end of the year.
 "The industry moves in this sort of Christmas to Christmas cycle. So you can expect that there will be more devices, more features in the market at that point," he said.
"Our next round of introductions will probably be in time for the holiday of this year."
 He said Microsoft planned extensive research with focus groups in Europe to see how it could be modified for a European consumer.

[via Reuters]

links:
Midem Conference 2007

related articles:
Zune in Europe in the 1st half of 2007? (Jan Muehlfeit)
Zune Europe release  (Gordon Frazer)
No Europe release earlier than 2008 ?! (Dene Schonknecht)
Australia release in 2007 (Steve Vamos)