J Allard's official press profile last updated Oct'06 says he's already responsible for Zune. The early Dec '06 article in BizWeek certainly made it sound like J was in charge. He would furthermore be the savior of Microsoft's soul in consumer technology innovation and marketing coolness.

Bryan has been a peer of J in Microsoft's published executive hierarchy.

In Oct 2005, Bryan was “VP & CFO, HED” responsible for financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and fiscal performance assessment. Doesn't sound like the guy you'd want to engineer or market Zune.

In Oct 2006, Bryan was listed as “CVP, Entertainment” responsible for Music, television and film; division finance & bus mgmt.” Reporting to him are another CVP responsible for TV, and another for eHome.

Whoever crafted a release schedule with no time (or marketing budget?) to prep the retail channel is the one that deserves the “duh” award.