Launched last year, Zune was seen by many analysts as Microsoft’s response to the iconic Apple’s iPod. But although Zune is a decent player, with a large LCD screen and a 30 GB hard drive, it’s still far from being a real competitor for iPod.

Robbie Bach was among those who admitted that Zune is only a beginning for Microsoft and the battle to conquer iPod dominant position will be a long battle.

Today, nine months after the launch of Zune, in an interview for SFgate.com Bach shared his thoughts about being an iPod competitor and Apple.

Bach revealed that Microsoft has sold "a little over a million" of the 30GB players by late May, putting it ahead of the million-unit target set for June. Zunes also have a "pretty typical" attach rate per player for songs bought from the Zune Marketplace, Bach said.

The WiFI connectivity offered by Microsoft’s MP3 player was promoted as one of the main advantages of Zune, but this feature can be used only to exchange songs between two users. During his interview with SFgate, Bach als hinted that Microsoft intends to further expand Zune's Wi-Fi in order to be used for more than just sharing through software upgrades.

Bach also spoke about the iPgone, the Apple’s venture into mobile phones market. The phone is set to be unveiled on June 11.

Bach addmited that iPhone is a very interesting product. “Apple is very good at design; they come up with interesting approaches to products” he added.

But he doesn’t seem to scared by competing with iPhone. “In the phone space, we're very comfortable with the model we've chosen. We think phones are deeply personal. Some people want a flip phone, some people want a candy bar (shaped phone), some people want a QWERTY keyboard, some people want a touch screen, some people want music phones -- people have different needs.” Bach said.