No Zune phone at CES, says Microsoft

Microsoft has officially silenced speculation that it will launch a Zune phone at the Consumer Electronics Show next month. In a short but sweet statement, Brian Seitz, MS' Zune chief, told US website Gizmodo that it won't announce a "Zune phone at CES”. Talk of a Zune phone has been doing the rounds for a while. Earlier this …

[Allan Rutland]

So maybe not a phone...

but quiet possibly a more entertainment mobile phone OS? like a Windows Mobile but a lot more simplified for just games, music and video? A Windows Entertainment Mobile or something.

[Thomas]

Microsoft really shouldn't release a phone...

... as commented on the previous article, they'd either have to saddle it with Windows CE which would make it extremely unattractive to normal consumers, sell it with CE as a business product putting them in direct competition with their channel partners just when Symbian is suddenly free and Android is likely to make an impact*, or give it a completely different OS which is either much better than CE, also alienating channel partners, or no better, alienating customers.

Probably they should just merge the Zune functionality into CE with the intention of reaping profits from the Zune marketplace. In fact, don't those things already (or maybe support was just already announced?) run a flavour of XNA apps, setting Microsoft up for an Apple AppStore style license to print money?

* you know, in relative terms, compared to the smartphone market.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's walk before we can run...

Hold fire on the whole phone / zune combo but when the hell are Microsoft EVER going to get the zune selling in the UK? Yes there are ways and means of getting a zune but it is so hard to do so and unfair on UK citizens. The Zune is actually a dam fine player that is better than an iPod. The Zune marketplace and zune software is superior in every way to that of iTunes yet nothing over here. I know I am praising Microsoft but the fact is they have a good device in the Zune it just baffles me why the UK is not being tapped with it?

[Jerry Masterson]

zunePhone? Phune?

A phone tacked onto a player that nobody wants from a company nobody cares about. Except Steve's kids. Maybe a catchy name that instills confidence will make people buy it. How about VistaPhone? Err, maybe not.

[Spencer Davies]

Does It Really Matter? The UK Wouldn't See It Anyway!

Like with all the Zunes, The people in the UK would have to import as usual...So why release something like that anyway?.