“Is Microsoft about to launch its own smart phone?” Eric Savitz asks for Barron’s.
“In a bold call Monday night, Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert asserts in a research note that ‘recent industry checks’ indicate Microsoft will do just that within the next two months – fulfilling years of speculation about a secretive effort known as Project Pink to develop a Microsoft branded handset,” Savitz reports. “Egbert thinks the phone will debut either at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 15-18, or at the CTIA show in Las Vegas a month later.”
Savitz reports, “Egbert says the company is ‘partnering with a few OEM manufacturers’ to create a Zune-like phone… [and that] the OEM deals will be similar to HTC’s arrangement to build the Nexus One phone for Google.”
Full article here.
Microsoft?
Please spare us- We’re tired of your “Me too” ‘tude and we (exception being the “i hAtOrz teh aPPlezORS”) crowd is going to buy it.
Do us all a favour and go away.
Zune-like?
Wow, them’s fightin’ words…
“In addition to the Zune Phone, Microsoft is also said to be unveiling that week another cutting edge innovation: the Microsoft Wheel.”
Actually, I can hardly wait to get my hands on one of these zunefones. They will be as rare as hens’ teeth when I retire in 2011, and I’ll make a tidy sum selling it to one of the 18 diehard WinMo fans.
Expecting a Zune?
Is it too late for an abortion?
It is likely to be a phone that uses a Zune interface and MS Marketplace for music and video running WinMobile 6.x. It will not likely be a Microsoft branded phone, but a handset maker who integrates a Zune experience into the phone.
Well Microshaft is so much more likely to stab it’s partners in back by coming out with a phone that uses a WinMo that will never be released to OEMs
WinCe 6.6.6?
Wonder if it will have a physical keyboard…
Mr. Pink: Yeah, “Mr. Pink” sounds like “Mr. Pussy”. Tell you what, let me be Mr. Purple. That sounds good to me. I’m Mr. Purple.
Joe: You’re *not* Mr. Purple. Somebody from another job’s Mr. Purple. You’re Mr. Pink!
A “smart” phone from Microsoft? Hardly.
What is worse than a Zune in the toilet?
A Zune in your ear!!
What will be interesting is that Microsoft will launch this into a marketplace where their chances are anything but assured. Apple, RIM, Noika (Symbian) and increasingly, Android will have carved out strong market share slices; Microsoft simply won’t be able to take this away from them.
First, if they launch a Zune phone (why they continue to stubbornly stick with a failed brand name is beyond me) with Windows 6.5, it will be a failure out of the gate, because it will be an OS that simply cannot compete against also-rans, not to mention the iPhone.
Second, if Microsoft launches the Zune Phone with a new OS that the company might or might not be developing, they will commit a huge strategic mistake, as this would leave millions of WinMo phone owners totally “Zuned.” (Think “Plays for Sure.”) This is guaranteed to piss off a number of people.
Third, if Steve Ballmer thinks Microsoft will charge an arm and a leg for their OS to the public or handset makers, why would the public want that, when they can get Android for free? Perhaps corporate IT Nazis might be that stupid, but many will likely balk at the idea. This may have once worked with Windows, but Microsoft will find itself in for a rude awakening.
Fourth, if Microsoft introduces a Zune phone but also tries to license its OS to other handset makers, again, I think this will fail, especially when the competing handset makers could get Android for free. This would pretty much make Robbie Bach’s recent snipe at Google moot. For that matter, handset makers licensing WinMo will likely defect if a more advanced Zune Phone OS is not available for them to license. This is a no-win scenario.
Fifth, it’s not just the phone that matters. It’s just hardware. If Microsoft is to even compete with a Zune phone, its hardware would have to be revolutionary. Its OS will have to be something of an order of magnitude beyond anything offered by Apple, to a lesser extent, Google or to set the bar much lower, RIM. And that’s only the beginning. Apple brilliantly laid out a strategy years ago of establishing iTunes as the de facto standard for media players. Then Apple created the iTunes Store, the largest and most respected source for digital music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, college courses and of course, apps. (And soon, books, magazines and newspapers, very likely.) Microsoft has only token efforts in this area.
Sixth, the mobile experiences division of Microsoft has been a train wreck. Frequent delays, quality problems, competing initiatives, terrible management and fiascos such as the Danger server melt-down have been all too frequent in this division. And the Courier concept that some digital fanboys have lusted over? It’s just a Flash or SilverLight movie and nothing more. Toss in Pink and Windows Mobile, and you have a modern day version of the 100 meter dash for people with no sense of direction.
Yeah, I like our strategy alright. I like it a lot.
Well at least Microsoft isn’t Zunning their Win Mobile partners. The only partner they have left, they’re paying them to put up with Win Mobile’s bullshit.
Microsoft can’t sell Win Mobile. That boat sailed when Android came out, was better and was free.
Now that Microsoft has to pay customers to use Win Mobile, they may as well pay them to put the Microsoft brand on their WinPhones too.
Android and Win Mobile. The phones you use when you don’t want to know who to blame for a shitty experience.
Carrier? Manufacturer? Microsoft?
So MSFT…. How’s that hope and change working out for you?
First of all I have considerable doubts about this, it doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t see any way that Microsoft can emerge with any dignity if they try this. Maybe nobody has the balls to tell Ballmer.
However, if they do actually launch a product, it’s going to be a great deal of fun for the press dragging out the old quotes from Ballmer about the iPhone. He has gone out of his way to criticise every aspect of the iPhone, so if he ends up copying it, he’s going to be inviting ridicule. On the other hand, if it’s significantly different, it’s doomed to failure.
i can’t wait. i may be more excited about this reveal than apple’s on the 27º
Great. The Microsoft Project Pink Elephant. Can’t wait.
What could their ‘killer feature’ be that might possibly even get us to consider it a contender?
You mean after loudly criticizing Google for “pulling a Zune” (aka “Zuning”) on mobile phone partners, Microsoft is going to do the exact same thing (again)?
Seems likely at some point. Otherwise, there would be fewer and fewer phones that use WinMo, especially if WinMo 7 is delayed beyond 2010.
“Third, if Steve Ballmer thinks Microsoft will charge an arm and a leg for their OS to the public or handset makers, why would the public want that, when they can get Android for free? Perhaps corporate IT Nazis might be that stupid, but many will likely balk at the idea. This may have once worked with Windows, but Microsoft will find itself in for a rude awakening.”
Ultimately this is why I think Microsoft MUST pursue the strategy of selling their own phone. The market for a smartphone OS is just gone.
Who wants to pay Microsoft a per-unit fee when they can get a a better, more flexible OS for free from Google? Having said that, with Google selling “the whole package” now, no handset manufacturer can afford to leave the OS to another company.
Where is I’m a PC ? I thought he would be jumping for joy.
The faster MS goes bankrupt the better….
Bring back Windows ME, PLEASE……
I wonder what a BSoD will sound like on a Zune phone? Perhaps it will sound like a ‘trouser cough’.