The Zune is gaining traction in the US market, NPD results have revealed. The research firm's January 2007 marketshare figures put the Microsoft-designed player at 9.9 percent of all hard drive music players sold in the country, a sharp jump from the 9.0 percent reported in the player's first month. While the NPD study is said to be an incomplete survey of stores and covers only a portion of all music players, the data points to a stable foundation for the young device.

The analyst group also noted that the Zune Marketplace grew much more quickly than expected, with a 60 percent increase in subscriptions to the unlimited-access Zune Pass service and a 65 percent climb in the number of individual songs bought through Microsoft's music store. [via Zune Insider]