Zune Pulls An Android: No Zune Phone

October 3, 2008 in Software & Apps, Windows Mobile

The Zune Phone has been the object of much speculation with tech followers assuming the logical progression of the Zune brand would result in a phone to compete with the iPhone and SE Walkmen phones. Instead, Microsoft is doing what Google did almost a year ago in announcing SOFTWARE as opposed to HARDWARE.

The news is nowhere near the magnitute of Android but it does illustrate that the mobile industry is moving more and more towards applications and software being a main differentiating feature. Adding the familiar Zune software and capabilities to Windows Mobile will extend the Zune brand better than a single device which would be inevitably pummeled by critics… simply because it isn’t the iPhone.

In a recent interview, Steve Balmer had this to say about the future of Zune:

Ballmer: At the end of the day, one of the big trends is that all content is going digital. And if we don’t have the software and services that are useful, helpful and valuable for the consumption of music and video, we are sort of not really a player.

Now, we built the Zune hardware with the Zune software - and what you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc.

Windows Mobile 7 is coming out soon so perhaps we’ll see Zune software relatively soon. This information of course doesn’t prevent Microsoft from developing and launching a Zune Phone at some point, but the proliferation of Zune Software on all WinMo phones is more likely, feasible and… probably most effective.

I really like the approach Microsoft is taking here. Of course, launching a Zune Phone would be incredibly cool but if they do so, they better make it a bulletproof device or the product could singlehandedly squash the brand. Thats half of what makes the software move first so good.

[Via WMPowerUser]

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