No Zune Phone For You!

The evidence is more than piled up that Microsoft is not doing a phone version of their Zune.  With the recent introduction of Windows Mobile 6.5, there is definite anticipation of Windows Mobile 7.  Is there a renewed hope for a Zune Phone?

Clearly, not so far.  Ballmer reemphasized that Microsoft is committed to the licensing model.  In other words, someone else makes the hardware, and Microsoft just does the software, which is what they do for desktops/notebooks, and what they want to do anyway.  Producing a Zune Phone, where they do both the hardware and the software just wouldn't fit into those plans.  At least for the rest of this month, I think the Zune Phone rumors have been kaboshed.

The real question is where does that leave the Zune?  In a market that is so overly smartphone centric, where sales of the iPod Classic are flat, can the Zune ever thrive and get beyond a niche product of folks that want a good music player and won't buy an Apple anything?  I'm not sure, but unless things change, and pronto, I don't see the Zune getting into double digits without "Thinking Different."