A Zune Phone? Ballmer Says Not So Sure!

A journalist from USA Today, David Lieberman, asked Steve Ballmer at the USA Today CEO Forum at the University of Washington campus, "When can we look forward to a Zune phone?" and Ballmer responded:

"It's not a concept you'll ever get from us. We're in the Windows Mobile business. We can put Zune into Windows Mobile, we can put Xbox into Windows Mobile. We can pour everything in. We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music. A phone is really a general-purpose device. You want it to make telephone calls. You want to get and receive messages -- text, e-mail, whatever your preference is. You may want music, you may want to play games, you may want to carry your contacts with you, and you may want to pay for things. I think we have to think about the phone instead of as a fixed-function device, a phone is really kind of a general purpose device that we need to have clean and easy to use."

What does it mean? Not sure. But if Ballmer wanted to confuse everyone on the future of the Zune brand, he could certainly not do a better job. Since the introduction of the Zune last fall, Microsoft always said that a Zune branded phone was in the plans. The company never revealed when such a device was plan on Zune's road map.

Is this the announcement of a brand shift for the Zune? According to Ballmer's answer, the Zune's future would be limited to music and video and a Microsoft phone could be release but outside Zune's branding. Last November, Ballmer said that the Zune 1.0 would certainly not be the platform for the Zune Phone but said that the Zune Phone will be released in the future.

After only six months in the market, the last thing that Zune needs is uncertainties related to its future. What gives the Zune its hype is more what the device could become than what it actually is today. If Microsoft starts diminishing the future potential of the Zune, consumers and early adopters' interest may decline rapidly.

To be followed!

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Comments

[Gizmoactive]

"If Microsoft starts diminishing the future potential of the Zune, consumers and early adopters' interest may decline rapidly."

You're right on that point. Since the launch of the Zune I've been considering purchasing it, but what has held me back up to this point is waiting to see what the development plans were for it.

Hopefully Balmer (or another MS Exec) will provide more clarity in the future.

[JohnCz]

I don't think Microsoft ever qualified that a "Zune Phone" would be either a new piece of hardware or a software service. If they were to enable Zune as a software service then all is good in my book. Today, many mobile phone service providers have their own music service offerings. I can see a Zune branded service that will be available on some phones. Think of it like search engines today...everyone is fighting to be the default search engine. From a architecture standpoint..my hope is that Microsoft will make your media library available without the need for localized Mobile storage requirements or syncing. Anyway, just my 2c worth.

[Bryce]

Hmm, I'm still not very keen on the Zune Phone idea. I still think that they should conquer the mp3 player stranglehold by Apple before going cross-platform. However, if it would have some quite amazing features and there would be some way to connect it to my Zune, I'd be all over it. Something interesting would be a wireless connection between the phone and the Zune. Maybe you could call your Zune for music? :p

[wrestlerby2010]

What if Microsoft designed a phone where you could do all the stuff the iphone does, except with the added option of paying for items via the phone, using bluetooth or something. That would be pretty sweet I think.