Microsoft’s Zune media player still isn’t a threat to Apple’s iPod, but a million units have already been sold - or so it seems depending on who you listen to. In reality, Zune sales projections are on track to hit a million by the end of the company’s fiscal year in June, according to Business 2.0.

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, said in an interview "When we finish our fiscal year in June we’ll have sold a little over a million Zunes, so we feel very good about that."

But by the time his quote started working its way through the media, it had morphed into " We’re still about nine months into having Zune in the marketplace. We’re very pleased with the progress. We’ve sold a little over a million Zunes."

Microsoft previously attempted to dethrone the iPod by teaming with other portable media player manufacturers to offer products and music services designed to compete directly with Apple’s offerings. When those alliances failed to make a dent in the iPod market share, Microsoft chose to abandon its partners and strike out on its own.

When Microsoft dropped its Zune media player and music service on the market, the company hoped that its features would trump the iPod and sway consumers away from Apple’s product lineup. So far it appears that buyers are still more interested in what Apple has to offer.

Although Microsoft’s Zune sales figures are respectable compared to some other music player manufacturers, they show that the rest of the market still has a long way to go to catch up to Apple’s reigning iPod: It took Microsoft six months to sell a million Zunes. In comparison, Apple managed to sell over a million iPods every nine days last quarter.

[This article has been updated with additional information about Microsoft’s Zune sales.]