Microsoft is set to launch its next generation of Zune players on November 13th and to help sell off stock of the existing models, J & R and Amazon.com have both recently dropped the brown 30GB Zune price to US$99.99 with the other colour models selling for $149.99.  This price drop has not only helped sell more Zunes, but managed to do so enough to push the brown 30GB Zune model to Amazon's #1 spot in its electronics category, leaving its nearest rival, the Apple 4GB iPod Nano at the #4 spot. 

This is probably the first time since the early days of the iPod that a rival MP3 player has managed to reach the #1 spot in Amazon's best selling electronics category.  However, chances that this is only temporary with the price likely to go back up once the new Zune series launches.

Microsoft will also provide a firmware update for the current Zune series to give it the same functionality as the next generation Zune series.  This firmware will also be released on November 13th.