... customer care is not even nearly as good here, in Italy (as always).

Anyway, you've got PM, Mark

And now, some more info, for who is interested.

I got my Zune yestreday. Here is the comparison I could not find anywhere on the internet, hoping it is useful for somebody else.

First off, volume and quality:

Again, Zune seems to confirm the "volume cap" issue. Zune's Max volume is significantly higher than my iPod's. And, now, I am comparing these devices using the very same mp3s and the very same earplugs (Sennheizer CX500 / Stock Zune Earplugs). So, EU volume cap is definitely here, and it is really bad.

Quality: Zune's is definitely higher. Better low frequencies, no distortion.

But... and here comes what is very surprising to me:
Zune's stock earplugs (these are not in-ear, and not the high quality earplugs Zune 80 used to come with) sound so good to me! I am impressed. Now, comparing them to my sennheized CX500, which are however among the best I've tested in these weeks, they are slighly lower in volume, but I like them better in terms of sound quality. Precisely, I hear much more low frequencies, and less background noise. Because, by listening to them, I realized another thing I did not like in my iPod: background noise! I did not realize it was there, until it went away. Maybe I have faulty Sennheizer earplugs, but that background noise was there also with other earplugs I tested, I believe. Definitely with iPod stock ones. Maybe it is just these Zune ones to match well with these two portable players...
Anyway, now, comparing Zune and iPod EU, difference in volume is very significant with both earplugs, but both devices sound better with Zune's stock earplugs, to me. The iPod quality in terms of low frequency is not as bad as before with these Zune earplugs.
What can I say? My ears are probably weird ones. We are talking of high end sennheizer earplugs with theoretically average quality Microsoft/no brand earplugs.
Also the Zune sounds a bit more lacking of low frequencies when used with sennheizer, but definitely not as much as the iPod, I guess due to the higher output power.

So, overall my opinion about this global quality/volume issue with the iPod is the following:
iPod EU have a lower volume, which is partly affecting the perceived sound quality. Sennheized earplugs contributed to reduce perceived low frequencies..

I am more and more convinced that a US iPod would sound just as good as the Zune.

Now, let me compare these two devices on all other aspects that I thing deserve to be mentioned.

1. Case: iPod case is nicer to look at and to touch. Zune's metal back does not feel so solid, and front glossy black is beautiful but plastic. Zune looks bigger, and it is, but by just a couple of mm. Zune seems lighter, but by very little. In the end, there's no big difference in terms of how easily you carry them in your pocket.

2. Management of Audiobooks is slightly more advanced in iPod. Zune requires you to tread them like normal playlists. Good enough with both, however.

3. EQ. Zune does not have it. On the other hands, I don't find iPods EQ particularly useful as it seems to lower perceived quality when applied.

4. Alarm clock/timer: i particulrly like and use them, and there's none in Zune.

5. iPod Compatible with Alpine X100. Zune is not even recognized, so I can't use it in my car at all. I do hope Alpine and MS decide to cooperate/. What a major selling point it would be for both, I believe.

6. Hold button is easier to operate in iPod

7. Display: Zune is the absolute winner here. Its display is larger, beautiful to look at, and mouch more useful due to this. Menu items are easily readable.

8. Zune's on board software seems better to me. Just as fast as it can be, it is very immediate to operate and learn. The empeg-like feature (somewhat) that allows to add songs to "currently playing" track list is so good, and I like it better than the "on the go" iPod feature. On the other hand

9. iPod's "on the go" playlist can be preserved and saved, which is great.

10. Wireless worked at first shot, very well.

11. Zune is more customizable. Custom background pictures is just a simple and great feature. Picture slideshow on such a nice display give zune a whole new dimension in terms of keeping your picture db in there.

12. iTune and Zune software. Zune wins. iTunes has both less bugs and features . Actually the only bugs Zune sw has consist of A. the apparently random sync activity, but I suspect there's a logic I still have to learn; B. creation of some duplicate playlist for no reason. Precisely, if you create a playlist and call it "80's", while you populate it or do other stuff, for no reason a "80's (2)" playlist appears, containing exaclty the same media as the other one. When you delete it, sometimes it reappears . O well, not major, but very annoying.
Zune allows you, however, to sort Album as you wish: by year, artist, name, rating, etc, in and out of playlists. This i love, coming from the Empeg. Autoplaylists work well in both.
Zune finds many more Album art pictures. Not only that. When a match is not perfect it allows you to compare what found and what on your collection, song by song, It's just excellent.
Moreover, priceless, Zune lets you chose every option of the directory system that will be used on your hdd: where settings will be saved, where playlists, where your audio base is, where your video base is, where podcasts will end up to, etc. This is just perfect.
And, to conclude, Zune DOES monitor your media base directories to incorporate all changes.

13. What is with Zune's default crazy setting that reconversts all MP3s to a lower bitrate when syncing?? I am not sure I fully understand why and when it is done, but I am not even sure I want to know . I disabled it after a first and useless full sync of 70GB!

14. Zune Sw comes in 64bit flavor. MS did a good job in updating it.

15. Zune supports a lossless format.

16. Radio audio quality in Zune is great. I guess as good as it can be on such a device. iPod's external radio is just ok.