Bryan Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft's entertainment business, said the company aims to sell more than 1 million Zunes during the 2007 fiscal year, which ends June 30.

This is the first sales forecast the company has released for its entry into the digital media player market, which is dominated by Apple Computer's iPod. NPD Group, a market researcher, reported earlier this week that the Zune had slipped to fifth place, after debuting in second.

Lee said the external sales forecast matches its internal goals for growing the product.

"It's really a 10-year goal if you will and our goal in the first phase is to become relevant in the space," Lee said.

One thing that's surprised him from the first three weeks of sales is the Zune appears to be growing the market for digital music players rather than taking market share away from the iPod.

As for the pink Zunes, Lee said there are 50 of them out there, along with 50 in orange.

The majority of Zunes are in white, black and brown. Lee said brown is proving to be the hardest color to get.

Here's more of our Zune coverage.

Kim Peterson's look at the challenge Microsoft faces in unseating the iPod.

Brier Dudley's Zune review.

Brier on launch events in Seattle.