by , 2:15 PM EDT, September 6th, 2007

A Microsoft employee in the Zune unit reacted calmly, almost distantly to Apple's new iPod and music announcements, according to C|Net on Thursday.

No one knows what Microsoft has in store to counter the new iPods from Apple, and Microsoft's Cesar Menendez didn't divulge anything new. However, he said in his Blog, "Oh, and this may come as a shock to folks, but today's Apple Computer [sic] announcement doesn't actually change any of our plans. Of course we watched with some degree of interest but our plans have been in motion for some time now. No announcements to make other than the fact that the Zune team remains committed to building a solid experience for users."

Microsoft has a lot of work to do to catch up, if indeed catching up is even on the table. Apple has been remarkably creative and aggressive in the evolution of its iPod product line, always staying far ahead of the competition.

"That said, students of Microsoft history know it's a bad idea to count Redmond out. Once it enters a market, the software giant rarely retreats. It tries and tries again," Ina Fried noted.