The iPod killer, the future-proof MP3 player, the cool-looking portable Hard Drive. The Zune's been called a lot of things (we'll omit what the iPod dudes have to say for now), and while we do like the functions that it's been churning out, and Bill Gate's exceeding expectations for his (other) little black box, we were beginning to wonder just how people took to it as compared to the iPod.

"I have never heard of the Zune," came the reply of one sales clerk when asked about the Zune, at least according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Munster had conducted a survey on at 40 major retails stores, and found in his results that only 8% of the sales clerks ever recommended the Zune, with 75% recommending the iPod for customers.

"In fact, some MP3 player salespeople had not even heard of the Zune, despite the fact that they sold it in their store," Munster also writes in his report. Ouch. As of Tuesday, the Zune's on the #22 spot for Amazon's most sold MP3 player, the 30-gigabyte ipod taking the #1 spot, the 1-gig iPod shuffle at #3, and the pink 4-gig Nano at #5.

And what of marketing for the Zune? "our checks show that Zune ads are being placed more selectively than iPod ads," Munster said, adding that the Zune "is off to a slow start; from sales perspective as well as the marketing perspective." Given the season's just starting up, we're going to have to see what lies in store for the Zune.