Marking its foray into the portable music device market, software giant Microsoft Thursday announced the release date of the forthcoming high-definition (HD) version of its Zune digital music player - September 15. Preorders for the Zune HD will start henceforth from Microsoft, Amazon. com, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy.

Aim at grabbing market share from Apple's iPod, the Zune HD models boast of attractive new features, like a touch-screen interface and a high-definition radio; and have also been priced visibly lower than the corresponding-storage-capacity iPods.

While the 16GB version of the Microsoft Zune HD will cost $219.99, the 32GB version will be available at $289.99. In comparison, the Apple 16GB iPod Touch is priced at $299 and the 32GB model costs $399.

Nonetheless, analysts opine that with the kind of hold that Apple has on the music device market, the launch of Zune, despite its much enhanced functionality, may prove to be a little too late to make any notable dent in its market share. Going by the June 2009 statistics from market research firm NPD Group, Apple held 73 percent of the market, while Microsoft held a mere 2 percent.

Commenting on Zune HD, Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions, said: "This is a good product. But if Microsoft really wanted to play in the (music device) market, it should have made it earlier!"