Quebec sniggers at Bill Gates' Zune 18 Sep 2006

Randy Boswell, reporting for CanWest News Service:

"A Microsoft spokeswoman in Montreal told CanWest News Service that 'it was pointed out to us' during focus groups in the province that the proposed brand name sounded much like a French-Canadian term used as a euphemism for penis or vagina."

Yes, "Zune" sounds very much like the French word "zoune'' - a word that is typically used to refer to male or female genitalia when addressing children.

Yet while such an association may have prompted lesser companies to rebrand, Microsoft is sticking to its guns. Nathalie Bergeron, a spokeswoman for the organisation told CanWest that Microsoft did extensive customer research in Quebec and concluded that the name Zune was "very effective". So that's that then.

(Microsoft are no stranger to localisation issues of course. In June, we told you how eight pixels cost Microsoft millions.)

Read the CanWest report in full here.