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Microsoft Zune Phone: Coming to MWC on Feb. 15?

By | January 26, 2010, 8:23am PST

Summary: A new Microsoft Zune software maintenance release has revealed not one, but three listings for phone device drivers.

A new Microsoft Zune software maintenance release has revealed not one, but three listings for phone device drivers.

Eagle-eyed Long Zheng spotted the listings inside the Zune.inf file. Listed are Phone.DeviceDesc placeholders for three unannounced (Pink? Windows Mobile 6.x? WinMo 7?) phones that carry Zune DNA.

As ZDNet’s own Mary Jo Foley reported last week, Microsoft recently went through organizational changes that hinted at bringing the Zune touch to Windows Mobile development. Foley explained in a previous post that a proper Zune phone is unlikely, but if the Zune was the (well-received) platform for a proof-of-concept exercise in media services, it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that such features would work their way into a phone.

The company is expected to make a splash with an announcement at Mobile World Congress, which begins February 15.

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Topics

Phone, Mobile, Microsoft Zune, Device Driver, Microsoft Corp., Mobile Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Telecom & Utilities, Operating Systems, Mobile Applications, Software, Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is editor of ZDNet and SmartPlanet.

Disclosure

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He lives in his native Philadelphia with his wife, cat and Boston Terrier.

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zune needs only a few features
deek1ng 8th Sep 2010
heres wat it needs to do:make an 8gb zune hd[it rlly doesent have any apps and probably wont get even half the amount the itouch has]next it needs a camera duh,third cant play music outloud[pisses me off]4th faster internet and lastly dont make a phone its gonna crash and burn within a year or so.just make a zune hd 2 tht can do everything i said and more and apple will slowly start to die.also endorse it on tv more!!!! and on xbox 360 make them watch a video of the zune cuz chances r ur loyal microsoft users r using macbook and apple ipod touch and thts it hopefully they read this.
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0 Votes
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Anything for competition...
Narg 26th Jan 2010
The obiquitous iPhone is getting quite long in the tooth. Something from a REAL competitor would do it a world of good. The Zune itself is an amazing machine, but it's no iPhone. So this should be very interesting.
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This thing is getting old
markbn 26th Jan 2010
Zune phone? After several years nothing has materialized

Zune services in other devices? Only the XBOX received
something of that sort after several years as well

Zune's international launch: rumored for years but
nothing up to now.

Zune Games? Very few available

Let's face it, MS is not committed to Zune, I have no
idea why they keep releasing new hardware without pushing
it aggressively as they do with other products

WinMo is also in a limbo it seems. Hey MS: the iPhone has
been eating your lunch for several years under your nose!
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borrrring
SystemVoid 26th Jan 2010
Do we really need yet another "smart" phone in an already
over-saturated market? I can't imagine that anything
Microsoft introduces is going to be groundbreaking. Just
look at what happened with the Zune itself, it certainly
was no "iPod Killer"..

Next.
0 Votes
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Missed the boat I think.
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 26th Jan 2010
MSFT dragged their heels for too long.
0 Votes
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Android, too
John Zern 26th Jan 2010
Because I don't see a Zune or iTunes type music store fot them quite yet.

Which is surprising because I would have thought Google had the connections and money to create their own mp3 player and store themselves.
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Zune = Fail
gjafg 26th Jan 2010
We must ask ourselves, why couldn't Zune compete against Apple's iPod?

Because it was late to market, and offered nothing revolutionary enough to dislodge the incumbents.

Microsoft did not learn its lesson, and is now going to repeat itself, this time releasing a Zune Phone.

It has even less chance of succeeding than the Zune music device did.
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Zune = NoFail
John Zern Updated - 26th Jan 2010
You don't understand the market, then?
Does Zune outsell other players on the market?

Right now nothing beats the iPod in sales, and have no hope of doing so anytime soon, so what you're saying is that no one should put out an MP3 player then, because they won't sell as many as Apple?

Even though the Zune HD has nice features that the iPod doesn't?
0 Votes
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zune needs only a few features
deek1ng 8th Sep 2010
heres wat it needs to do:make an 8gb zune hd[it rlly doesent have any apps and probably wont get even half the amount the itouch has]next it needs a camera duh,third cant play music outloud[pisses me off]4th faster internet and lastly dont make a phone its gonna crash and burn within a year or so.just make a zune hd 2 tht can do everything i said and more and apple will slowly start to die.also endorse it on tv more!!!! and on xbox 360 make them watch a video of the zune cuz chances r ur loyal microsoft users r using macbook and apple ipod touch and thts it hopefully they read this.

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