“We’ve just received a sound tip that Microsoft is working on its very own phone to be branded under the Zune moniker. Our tipsters inform us that Microsoft execs are in meetings today hammering out details of the device and developing strategies and timescales for its release,” Blake Robinson reports for CrunchGear.
“It will be a smartphone that works homogeneously with the Zune marketplace. It will most likely not, however, run Windows Mobile. Rather it’ll make use of an interface similar to the current Zune,” Robinson reports. “The other detail that seems certain at this point is that the device will, if things go as planned, be available for the ‘07 holiday season.”
Full article here.
Yeah, you know, because the Zune was so successful and the Zune brand is so widely respected. We think we heard Steve Jobs’ laughter about Microsoft’s weak attempt to freeze the market with their usual vapor from across the continent. In other words, Microsoft talks about their so-called plans for the future as if they think people will hold off on other phones so they can get their very own brown Zune Phone. Microsoft: operating as if this is 1993 instead of 2007. Note to Microsoft: people are more knowledgeable today and they aren’t impressed with your products; see related article: PC World writer’s advice for Microsoft: ‘Stop making crap’ – July 27, 2006
A related CrunchGear article from Monday reports, “Over the weekend we stopped by our local overstock and discount store in Seattle and were shocked—shocked!—to find a stack of nearly a dozen brand-new, unopened Zunes selling at $168.” Full article, “Zune Goes Discount, Contributes to $289 Million Loss for Microsoft,” here.
Related articles:
Buh-bye: Senior Zune exec exits Microsoft – January 31, 2007
Report: Microsoft Zune screens cracking from overheating battery pressure – January 31, 2007
Last quarter: Microsoft lost $289 million on Zune, CE devices – January 26, 2007
RealMoney’s Comeau predicts: ‘Microsoft will kill the first Zune media player by midyear’ – December 16, 2006
Desperation time? Microsoft Zune already being discounted by retailers – December 13, 2006
Microsoft Zune plummets to 5th place in U.S. digital media player market share with 2.1 percent – December 04, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft needs to ‘rethink’ as interest in Zune fades fast – December 01, 2006
Microsoft’s Steve Jobs-wannabe J Allard has 9 iPods and uses an Apple Mac – November 28, 2006
TheStreet.com: It’s not looking good for Microsoft’s Zune; bad press may taint brand for years – November 24, 2006
Amazon’s bestselling MP3 players list chronicles Microsoft Zune dud – November 20, 2006
Apple files US patent application relating to iPhone/iTunes Store wireless transactions – February 01, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Rogers to offer Apple iPhone exclusively in Canada – January 25, 2007
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
“It will be a smartphone that works homogeneously with the Zune marketplace”
Last nail in the coffin, but it is even born.
Wait I’ve got the name for it: the “Zone” maybe I should copyright that?
Microsoft is JUST NOW getting to designing a Zune Phone and they think it will be released in time for the 2007 holiday shopping season????!!!
Wow. You’d think the latest experience with getting Office and Windows Vista out a wee little bit behind schedule would have placed a reality check on Microsoft.
If Apple is telling us the truth about FCC approval, Microsoft has to have their device basically designed by the end of May in order to have any shot at being available between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Not a freakin’ chance.
LOL! So Microsoft is going to bring their Plays For Sure/Screwed For Sure business model to the cell phone market. They will now compete with all of their Windows Mobile cell phone vendors/customers.
Can’t you see the possibilities here? The Zune phone will likely fail and also drive away MS’s customer base in the cell phone market — Their current Windows Mobile vendors/customers. Brilliant — the Screwed For Sure Microsoft business model!
Is this what Gates meant when he said Apple had problems partnering with others? Un Farking believable.
I bet if Apple leaked the (obviously fake) “iToothbrush”, Monkey Boy would hold a press conference the very next day to introduce their next leap in technological wonderment, the “Zoothbrush”. Un-F’ing-believable….
here’s an idea M$ do something original for once in your business. getting a bit sick of the supposed best company in I.T. singing the apple song (badly of course)
I can’t believe some retailer thinks he can move them at $168…talk about optimism. Microsoft should start a new initiative with their partners – Calls for Sure – then zing ’em with the Phune in 2008, or 2009, or 2010, or 2015. Finally, abandon them when iPhone looks unstoppable and release the new zPhune priced at $599, or $499, or $398, or $268 or $199. Welcome to the meltdown.
Sounds like a french song I heard long ago:
Phune, z-phune, z-phune
Plays a wonderful tune, z-tune, z-tune.
Makes Mari-Christine swoon, she-swoons, she swoons….
*
SNAP, CRACKLE, FIZZ…
*
“This track will now self-delete. Click here to acquire this track through the Microsoft Music Store.”
*
<click>
*
SNAP, CRACKLE, FIZZ…
*
“Track not found. Click here to acquire this track through the Microsoft Music Store.”
*
<click><click>
*
SNAP, CRACKLE, FIZZ…
*
“Cannot access server. Error number #AE109F100863B2.15E48. Reporting Error….”
*
dit-dit-dit-dit-dit
*
“Calling Customer Service Center….”
*
dit-dit-dit-<click>-dit-dit-dit-dit-<click>-dit-dit-dit
*
“Hello, you’ve reached CCSC Sri Lanka. All our Phunes are currently inoperative. Please leave your name and number after the beep….”
*
*
*
*
*
*
<click>
*
SNAP, CRACKLE, FIZZ…
*
Phune, z-phune, z-phune
Plays a wonderful tune, z-tune, z-tune.
lol@ less is more. The Phune is even better than the Zone!! “Excuse me, can you please pass me the Phune…”
The “WOW” is now.
The “Phune” is soon….
By the holiday season ’07? Which is Thanksgiving right? Give or take. So let’s say end of November.
Now, Apple has announced the iPhone will ship in June-ish. Why so long? Coz of the regulatory approvals and so forth… so, if that takes a few months (lets call it 3 or 4), then for MS to be ready by end of November, they’d have to have finished somewhere by the end of August at the latest.
Rrrrright.
That’s if they do it all themselves.
Or will they pull a Zune and buy an off the shelf smart phone and Microshaft it up. I reckon the latter. It’ll suck, just as everything else from them does.
Steve was right, they just don’t get it.
Btw, MDN’s saying it’s not 1993 anymore and people won’t be suckered in… well, I think they’ve been pulling the vaporware stunt a lot longer than that… I’d almost say since the early-mid 80s.
Chat On http://www.MacSnacs.com ta Guys.
ummm Apple and Cingular went exclusive with iPhone. As much as I love Apple I don’t expect Verizon to sit around for years and not respond. Zune Phone + Verizon will probably happen.
iPhone + Cingular exclusive is bizarre, but I still plan to buy one.
Microsoft announces the “Zune i Telephone” or “ZiT” will be certain to crush the iPhone by 2008
I heard rumors that MS was taking all the unsold Christmas Zunes back to the factory and replacing the internals to make them into ZunePhones. Actually they won’t be called ZunePhones. They will be called ZuPh’s
It will be nice to cee M$hit to loose 200 Billion$ of their market value. Good buy M$hitron!
Hey don’t forget
Acorn
Timex Sinclair
Tandy
Texas Instruments
” …brand-new, unopened Zunes selling at $168.”
Still overpriced!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
I used to be a Koolaid addict. Zune Tang’s impeccable writing and unassailable logic helped open my eyes. The process is clear. The Cupertino boys have a mole in Redmond. As soon as they steal the plans for a new product, they rush to produce it. Because Apple is such a tiny outfit, they can work very fast. Microsoft, on the other hand, needs time to put perfection into their products.
Almost as soon as the plans for Longhorn had been obtained, OS X came out. As we now can see, it clearly was built on the blueprints for Vista, except it is not a very close copy.
When the plans for the Zune became available, the iPod soon appeared. The iPod obviously is a crude copy of the Zune. Just look at the difference in features.
We need more courageous writers like Zune Tang, a champion of truth.
@ Linux Guy and Mac Prodigal Son:
Agreed. I’m waiting for the day when MS bring out their own branded PC
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Actually I think Apple is right not to attack the corporate market. If they can take a shot at a decent server and use thin clients they would have a compelling value proposition. Now matter how cheap Dell makes PCs a thin client is always going to be cheaper. With energy costs going through the roof it will also be cheaper to run.
All the ingredients are already there. A decent version of Open Office and a replacement for Exchange and they’re good to go.
Thanks to TUAW for the news flash regarding the real Zune Phone
Zune Tang, you are bloody hilarious.
The zune will not have a button, but it will have a zip.
You forget, the Zune is a Gigabeat(sp?)
The phone will be a redressed
samsung or LG.
With a catch phrase on the back
“Hello from Seattle,….Hello? Hello?”
Yup, it’ll be a rebranded something. Maybe Campbell’s soup cans with a really long string (for the Ultimate edition). The Home Starter edition just lets you yell really loud.
It took 5 years for Microsoft to do a basic update to it’s OS (Vista).
There is no way in hell Microsoft will release a zune phone this year.
I say maybe in… 7 years… it at all…
M$ announced the new phone will be called Phune….Cisco to file court papers on Monday.