Zune Phone: To Be Or Not To Be

John Dvorak in his PC Mag column is talking about how users are trying to guess the name of the Zune Phone:

Numerous Zune fanboy sites (yes, they exist) have been trying to guess at the name. Some ideas: the Z-phone, the Pune, the Zell Phone, Telezune, MicroPhone (get it?), Zobile, Zone, etc. Another guess from me—and a likely candidate considering the way things are going for Microsoft—the Microsoft Zune Mobile Phone. The company must be galled by the attention being paid to Apple, considering that Microsoft has been in the business for some time.

I'm not sure that he has hit the name on the head quite yet.  Then again, I'm also not sure if Microsoft should even be playing in the smartphone market right now.  I think that Apple figured out that while a small minority of devout folks will stay out all night to buy an iPhone, the masses didn't sustain, and therefore they had to drop the price out of the stratosphere.   Further evidence is that Palm is heading to the $100 price point with their latest smartphone effort, the Palm Centro.

For the time being, and the next year or two, the Zune team would be best to focus on their core product line of the Zune players.  Their second generation gear looks quite strong, and I'm confident that their third generation could be even stronger- if they don't dilute their efforts with a smartphone.

Jonas, Guest Blogger

TechNudge

Comments

[Salam Zebian]

Microsoft is already in the smartphone business, they do windows mobile, a mobile OS for other phones. They do the software only, no hardware. If they wanted to incorporate Zune somehow, maybe they can just make a Zune application that runs the Zune's interface on any windows mobile phone with Wi-Fi.

[Jonas]

While Microsoft and Windows are in the smartphone business, the Zune is not. These phones, like the Treo 750 tend to be a lot more business oriented than the iPhone is, and attract a more corporate audience, and less of the college campus crowd.

[kevo777]

I'm of the notion that it's best to do one thing and do it better. Let the Windows Mobile team do their own thing. Zune is finally gaining traction for people who really don't mind carrying around more than one device. I'd rather carry a smartphone and a separate PMP (Zune) than carry one device that cuts corners on all facets of it's abilities. Look at the iPod Touch. I've heard people say many times that it's the best iPod ever. Really? All that display and only 16 GB of storage?! They're lying. They always downplay when Apple doesn't do something quite right. The Zune team needs to continue focusing on making, and improving upon, a great PMP platform. The Zune's not lacking anything by not being a phone...not at all.

[Jonas]

I agree completely, Kevo777. I think the market, at least right now, is a lot larger for a good media player than for a smartphone. Apple missed with not giving the market a widescreen hard drive player, and the Zune 80 is in a good spot to fill that gap. The Zune team should leave the smartphone out of the picture for the next year or two and concentrate on doing what they do best.

[JohnCz]

On similiar lines. Microsoft should make Zune software portable so that it can be later be offered as an add-on to Windows Mobile users. I agree with those here that Microsoft should focus on developing the best media experiences possible on a non-phone portable media player. Howerver, I disagree that carrying two devices is sufficient. Your ideal setup is not necessarily the same as the person next to you. I personally want a unified device so I don't have to carry around multiple devices. For my children however, there is no way I want or think they are ready for a phone. So there you have it. Hopefully by this time next year or early 2009 we will be hearing about a Windows Mobile Zune add-on.

[Villian247]

The reason the iPhone was a big hit was the fan base that iPod had, and it carried it over with it to the iphone

Zune does not have that fan base yet, and will need to 1st build that up

Besides, Micro$oft already had a foot in the moblie phone market so I don't think they need to come out with a Zune phone and make people stick to one carrier. They already have their phones with all carriers so all they would have to do is make a software application that works with the Zune's pc software. That would be cheaper and easier to do then spend all that time to build up and implement a Zune phone both hardware and software.

[Ryan]

the iPhone price cut was not due to lagging sales but the introduction of the iPod touch. Who's going to buy an iPhone for $600 when you can get an iPod touch when double the storage for $400?

Over 1 million iPhones have been sold already. It has been leading smartphone sales since its been on the market.

Not a fanboy, I own a zune. The iPhone was my first apple product ive owned and i like it. Anyway i just wanted correct the iphone sales part of the post.