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Earlier today, Valleywag pointed out that it's the perfect time to release bad news. But what if you want and need to release good news into the vacuum left in iPhone's wake? Scheduled to hit the one million unit milestone, Microsoft's Zune group is facing this very decision. With little over two days left in June, did they miss their projections, decide to skip an announcement entirely, or are they waiting to position their release squarely against the din of iPhone mania?

Microsoft made the projection of one million Zunes by the end of June around its November launch, and a month ago they reiterated that they were "on track." Accomplishing the milestone would be a feather in their cap so they'd certainly want to exploit the press value. But as Thursday wanes, the likelihood of a press release is evaporating. The near perfect projection, made almost eight months ago, would be suspicious anyway — "Has Microsoft been stuffing the channel?" An announcement today would have been somewhat preemptive (we're still around) and at the very least reassuring (hitting their goal three days early, whoopee!) An announcement tomorrow would be contrary, possibly providing some value, but ultimately futile. A Saturday announcement is merely too late, too close. So Microsoft is probably forced to swallow their good news for a later, more meaningful date — "Oh yeah, we accomplished that goal, that was a while ago. We were on target. This is the new Zune."

Otherwise, Microsoft's good news (if they did accomplish the goal) could look exactly like what Nick Denton suggests: burying the bad news. The Zune may be nearing a million units faster than the iPod, but the iPod has also advanced the music player industry to everyone's benefit over the last five years. The good news (a million units in less than 230 days) quickly looks like bad news if Apple announces they sold half a million iPhones over the weekend.

On second thought, maybe they should issue a press release tomorrow... just as the doors at Apple Stores begin to open.