In recent days, Microsoft has quietly cut prices on the Zune HD through an at least temporary promo. The touch screen multimedia player, now costs $ 190 for a 16GB model at Amazon, or $ 32 less than the initial price, the 32GB model has been reduced by a similar amount to $ 250.

Microsoft’s own store has also dropped its prices by an amount less than $200 for a 16GB Zune HD and $270 for a 32GB edition. Wal-Mart and other retailers are also very similar to Amazon’s price.

Officially, Microsoft has only said that the new prices were part of “sales” and that means it may be temporary, but did not say if or when the promotion ends. The cuts, however, give it about twice as much capacity at the same price as an iPod touch or else a significant discount for similar capacity.

They price drops come as an attempt to spur sales post-holidays and suggest sales have cooled significantly since the September release. Microsoft has implemented such cuts in the past when Zune players weren’t faring particularly strongly and suggests as a result that the effective restart of the Zune line has had little direct impact on the company’s ability to increase its market share. Historically, Microsoft has been about 2 per cent of media player market, while Apple has had more than 70 percent.