Microsoft to Launch Zune Music Phone?

Press Release - February 5, 2007

The blogsphere is buzzing with reports of a Microsoft Zune-branded music phone, after the gadget blog, CrunchGear, received a “sound tip” to that effect late last week.

The new device will be classified as a smartphone but won’t run on Windows Mobile, the tipster claims. Instead, it will come with a software platform similar to that of the original Zune, and will be able to sync wirelessly with the Xbox 360.

The idea of such a device, which will supposedly compete with the Apple iPhone in the 2007 holiday shopping season, has been met with skepticism by most bloggers and online journalists. The Zune music player, after all, failed to pose much serious competition to the iPod in December 2006, leaving Apple well ahead in this market.

If the Zune phone rumors do turn out to be true, the device will likely end up as a muscle-headed attempt by Microsoft to prove itself superior to Apple, rather than a genuine play for the already-very-crowded music-enabled cell phone market.

Although one should never say never when it comes to technology products, I think it’s fair to interject that embarking on a difficult task for all the wrong reasons is a clear road to disappointment.