If there is one rumor that tends to come and go and agonizes Windows Mobile fans, it’s the one about a Zune phone. Although it’s not officially confirmed, Gizmodo has it on good word that Microsoft will be introducing a Zune phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. More specifically, it will be a Windows Mobile 7 phone with Zune features and capabilities, so it’s not a Zune phone, per se.
Giz says their source confirmed that “the Zune Phone presentation at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress 2010 is 100% confirmed.” Details are scant, but the new phone is said to have an Nvidia Tegra series chip, 480×272 screen, HDMI out and weighs in at a lightweight 2.45 ounces. We’re certainly looking forward to what Microsoft has in store for MWC and hoping that WinMo 7 takes off on some killer hardware.
[Via MuyComputer]
That’s a good looking phone and a good looking OS.
That phone and OS do look sweet, but sadly it’s just a brilliant mock-up. Hopefully it comes out looking equally well, or even better.
“it’s just a brilliant mock-up”/cheap copy
thats about as far as it gets with microsoft… as innovative as my big toe.
you have to ask yourself…. what would life be like without the app store???
I hope u know he is talking about the image. Let me state it again. He is talking about the IMAGE. Not any actual phone. The image is just a concept someone came up with.
They need to market it hard to share the pie with apple, google and nokia.
Oh, so they will have another device that is an epic fail. Nice. Good job Microsoft.
zune: 5 years behind apple and half the cool.
Obviously you’ve never used a zune… Windows Mobile is 5 years behind Apple and 1/4th as cool but Zunes are kick ass. Better then an iPod touch for music and just as good for browsing the web. The only down side (and it’s a major one) is the lack of a decent app store.
The Zunes are cool and good products especially the Zune HD. The apps they have now are decent and free, just poor app potential. But if the “zune phone” is true and is comming out soon, then they could be holding off on releasing a whole lot of apps for the zune hd until the “zune phone” comes out, and they would start working on a app store for both zune hd and “zune phone”. Be like the itouch and iphone all over again.
I am sure that Zune Phone will be a hit. Now we have three global IT giants Apple, Google and Microsoft in mobile industry. It does not look good Nokia, Samsung and other mobile big players.
“Sure” based on what? Microsoft’s rampant success with this device’s parents, WinMo & Zune? And I don’t think Nokia or Samsung worry about the Keystone Kops in the Windows Mobile BU at MS.
Well I can only say that Microsoft is no “Keystone Kops”. Microsoft’s launch of Zune Phone will be very carefully planned. Critics !!!!!! hang on to your seat and wait to be silenced.
Ann Julie at your service.
directorycellphones.com
Alright – everyone off Job’s jock for a sec, please. This isn’t Gizmodo.
I do analysis in the mobile market. Everyone who thought MS wasn’t committed to the mobile market for the long haul is high, idiotic or both. Windows has employed this same strategy of second/third mover advantage for a long time. Everything they’ve made, someone else had already popularized to some extent. They are cash rich and they can wait and see; they lost like 2 billion on the first Xbox and now look at the 360.
Yes Winmo 5 – 6.5 are relatively weak. Resistive screens suck. But, MS has the single strongest ecosystem (Zune, Xbox 360, Windows 7 and WinMo 7). In simple marketing terminology, complementary products. They have already demonstrated the ability to create an awesome UI (Zune 2nd Gen and particularly Zune HD). The Zune software itself makes iTunes look pathetic, bloated and old. I have an iPhone and a Zune so I know.
So what’s left? Put it all together into a common store, like I dunno, the Zune store? Games, Music, Movies, Apps etc.
How about this. If MS doesn’t have 30% Global Market Share (again) in mobiles by 2Q next year, I’ll eat my hat.
use plenty of salt with that. and small bites. helps with the gag reflex.
I really don’t get why people are convinced MS is dead in the mobile water. Nokia has been hemmorhaging market share too, and as Maemo matures, they’ll be fine. If anyone is screwed in the consumer space, it’s Blackberry – making email push and designing a great thumbboard is not that tough. I get that Apple is hot shit right now – hence me owning an iPhone. Is MS capable of an intuitive, great-looking UI? I’d have to say yes, particularily in reference to Zune HD and Windows 7. Are they capable from the hardware perspective? Again, yes – look at the Zune HD and Xbox 360. Can they entice developers to develop apps? This is a maybe considering Apple’s choice to force coders to use propietary Cocoa, but not insurmountable. Are they committed? Last year, I’d say no. Now that Apple has proven just how much money there is to be made, I’d say yes. And finally, do they have the ecosystem to get end-users to see the value-add considering the switching costs from Apple? I already mentioned the devices. MS is the clear winner with Windows 7 and the 360 and clear loser with the Zune and WinMo 7 (in all instances from the perspective of market share/availability, not necessarily merit).
Anyway, if MS goes CDMA with Verizon, they won’t even have to directly compete with Apple. There are a lot of people out there that want MS to suceed in this space. Not because they are fanboys, but because the rest of their devices are MS, and the ability to sync and share media across those devices is a no brainer win for consumers.
Nice clean look and all but, and this has been said before, its coming pretty late in the game. Now it looks more like Microsoft isn’t trying anything new. Sure the device will work and look fine, and maybe outperform the iPhone, who knows. But one of the key motivations for iPhone purchasing is the already well established community and following it has. Theres an infrastructure that microsoft currently can’t match in the mobile market.
480×272 took a lot of excitement out for me. This is not 2005, people.
I seriously don’t think that 480×272 is accurate when the leaked minimum specs for wm7 is wvga. The only reason i can see for this resolution is because the Zune HD is 480×272. Also, if this is wm7 with zune functions and the minimum spec for wm7 is wvga then there will be many brands of “zune” phones, such as HTC or samsung who will put a higher resolution screen in it, but will this cause the zune capabilities to not work? Who knows?
Microsoft is going to change the game and paint the sistine chapel, and Apple is going to be caught continuing their self portrait.
Zune HD has a killer interface that cant compare to the mobile mac os; its completely outside the box and more intuitive than any apple product I’ve ever touched (especially for someone who doesn’t care to spend a lot of time playing “me too” app comparison games with sighPodtouch/Phone users) The actual hardware (hd output anyone?) and software functionality (wireless sync) built in to the device make it the perfect marriage to my xbox360. Pair that with the Zune pass, and apple hasn’t gotten a dime from me since I bought and sold my intel macpro in 2007.
Apple hasn’t changed any game let alone theirs since their first mobile OS and device pairing, I really fail to see how apple still holds the “omg what a great ____” considering how flaccid, stunted, and stagnant everything except their APP store has become.
Say what you will but without all the 3rd party developers contributing applications to their device, Apple hasn’t done ANYTHING interesting and I accuse of them of counting cash and playing back-pat since their initial release.
Word. IMHO Apple hasn’t created a truly inspired user experience since the original iPhone, and even then it was centered around having the first great touch experience and a really awesome mobile browser, which they decided to suckify with an EDGE radio (successive encarnations have been modest upgrades at best. 3G? As in the 30 dollar HSDPA radio every other GSM phone had had for at least a year? Gee, thanks Apple!) And the iPhone didn’t even truly come into it’s own until the App store was released. Pretty much ever app worth having is in Android’s store now too, so that edge is kaput. So Apple has done 2.5/3 great things in the last decade. And this is enough to have every geek snorting Job’s taint like so much Bolivian blow? I have an iPhone and I like it well enough (mainly the browser), but it doesn’t satisfy the geek in me. It’s closed with a shit 400 MHz chip that Apple has squeezed everything out of, making jailbreaking a laggy affair. As a real geek, I like to fuck around with stuff. Like build my own computer, OC it to the limit, solder hacked ROMs on my Xbox mobo so I can steal games, etc. I think Apple has a created a new class of psuedo-geeks who really don’t know shit about computing but they sure like to act like it. If the iPod makes you a great dancer, I guess the iPhone makes you a tech savvy cool-geek. Yeah fucking right. I can go on and on about how undeserving Apple is of almost all the praise it gets and how much I hate all these so called “geek” blogs that cater to this dipshit Apple culture, but I think I’ll just /rant
i have one word for you dear friend…. IPad.
and just incase you’ve been living in a cave, apple was selling/pre-selling 20,000 an hour on friday.
Lmao why would you bring up iPad. I think your statement completly relates to what he is saying. First of all, did you even check out what an iPad does or should I say doesn’t do. For one and probably the most important and disapointing, it doesn’t multi-task so there goes it’s mobile computing edge. The thing is basicly a giant iPhone. Where’s the inovation? I guess you can rely on jailbreak devs for that. Oh well.
Written on my Jailbroken iPhone. yay to multi-tasking. lol!
i tried out an i pad a few days after it came out it is just a giant i pod touch and if you don’t buy the HD apps it’s blurry
wow!! now we have Michelangelo, Melissa & ILOVEU on the GO!! That´s awesome guys, keep rocking!!!
Can’t wait to see what happens at MWC!
Nowadays invention in the mobile industry is growing well in the advance features. Mobile itself working as minicomputer. Because mobile which has more technology as windows os like computer. The samething in this post which has very innovative mobile.
Wow!! johnny come lately microsoft presents!!!
The Zoon Phone!!! wow, can’t wait for this one!! hope it gets here Zoon!!! LOL The only thing funnier is reading all these glowing remarks about a “me too” wanna be iphone that does NOT even exist yet WTF is up with that????
just get an iphone and be happy…. like the rest of the civilized world.
BTW i know this is a bit off topic but…. whats a zune????? LOL
see ya real Zoon at the apple store!!!
“LOL The only thing funnier is reading all these glowing remarks about a “me too” wanna be iphone that does NOT even exist yet WTF is up with that????”
I don’t know if Microsoft intent is to create a “me too wanna be iPhone” but even if it is so what. Seriously let’s stop being immature for a moment and think for a mere second. In the world of technology there is always innovation. The iPhone I hold in my hands right now is very near to a computer. Might as well not call it a phone but a mobile computing device. Why can’t someone take the iPhone and re-invent it in their own vision, even if it is similar? Let’s also keep in mind that Microsoft is not making a Zune or as you see funny zoon phone. Microsoft is sticking to platforms and os. I would love to see a Zune phone but it is very unlikely to happen. Let’s keep an open mind to technology guys, play nice. I never understood any of the fanboy back and forth on forums and blogs. If you like a product then Great! If not ok jeez don’t get all crazy. Apple and Microsoft produce great products (I have to admit I am not a big fan of using a mac) but remember they are being run by people with loads of moolah, you know, bling. Money for people not into slang. Again play nice.
“Why can’t someone take the iPhone and re-invent it in their own vision”???
because the Iphone already continues to evolve and grow on its own; thru each new application the device is re-invented. The innovation thing is pretty much covered with the iphone in and of itself; Creativity/originality is what im talking about, and i just dont see that in anything offered by microsoft. (platforms and OS included) all i see is a desparate attempt to copy the genuine originality of apple from apple’s hardware right down to apple’s retail operation ( see microsoft store with “guru” bar)
In my view, microsoft’s recent offerings (zune ect…) represent the street corner knock-off…. a poor reproduction of the original. (ipod)
knock-Offs never impress me. give me the real thing everytime!!
Wouldn’t it be grand if MS was the ‘come back kid’ in the mobile arena. A typical blog here where flaming is the MO, albeit tongue-in-cheek. I personally will not diss MS until I can get a test run in the store. Yes I’ve had windows mobile for many years. I naively purchased a Blackberry Storm last year for the (now useless) virtual keyboard. Then went back to the more functional keyboard of Samsung Saga. I may go with a new WM7 empowered mobile device or the HTC Incredible (now that Verizon’s Nexus One is defunct. We’ll see. Time is no my side.