[Rocky Sullivan]

Appreciate this is a Zune thread but as its discussing a possible phone i cant help but talk about Windows Mobile

I am afraid that Microsoft do not know what they are doing with Windows Mobile at the moment, it appears as if they are suffering from a severe lack of direction and a general disconnect across divisions within their own organization.

I think completely converged devices in the form of a mobile phone have been coming for a long time – we knew this was how things were going to develop but Microsoft has not only been very slow to react, it has wasted the good head start it made with Windows Mobile.

They had a winning mobile phone OS three of even four years ago that pummelled the competition in to oblivion but what did they do next;

They split the OS into separate smart phone and professional versions – instead of concentrating on developing the whole thing to be more user friendly for both touch and non touch hardware. While this was seen at the time as a move to a more consumer friendly OS, and the benefits may still be seen in Windows Mobile 7 or 8, it currently looks like it just diluted the focus.

They dabbled with portable Windows Video Players before fooling themselves in to believing that they could produce a music player like the Zune to rival the iPod years after the former was well established in the market place. The Zune may well be a nice device but it was always going to be an “also ran” player in an overcrowded entertainment space where Apple were already king.

Why did they not focus on improving the media capabilities of Windows Mobile and the GUI?

There was even talk (and I think an announcement) of Xbox live integration in to Windows Mobile over 2 years ago, but we have seen nothing since.

When are Microsoft going to get their act together and start to really bring everything together – a Nokia Windows Mobile device could be great - but I have no interest in seeing a Nokia Zune device at all.

[Rocky Sullivan]

Appreciate this is a Zune thread but as its discussing a possible phone i cant help but talk about Windows Mobile

I am afraid that Microsoft do not know what they are doing with Windows Mobile at the moment, it appears as if they are suffering from a severe lack of direction and a general disconnect across divisions within their own organization.

I think completely converged devices in the form of a mobile phone have been coming for a long time – we knew this was how things were going to develop but Microsoft has not only been very slow to react, it has wasted the good head start it made with Windows Mobile.

They had a winning mobile phone OS three of even four years ago that pummelled the competition in to oblivion but what did they do next;

They split the OS into separate smart phone and professional versions – instead of concentrating on developing the whole thing to be more user friendly for both touch and non touch hardware. While this was seen at the time as a move to a more consumer friendly OS, and the benefits may still be seen in Windows Mobile 7 or 8, it currently looks like it just diluted the focus.

They dabbled with portable Windows Video Players before fooling themselves in to believing that they could produce a music player like the Zune to rival the iPod years after the former was well established in the market place. The Zune may well be a nice device but it was always going to be an “also ran” player in an overcrowded entertainment space where Apple were already king.

Why did they not focus on improving the media capabilities of Windows Mobile and the GUI?

There was even talk (and I think an announcement) of Xbox live integration in to Windows Mobile over 2 years ago, but we have seen nothing since.

When are Microsoft going to get their act together and start to really bring everything together – a Nokia Windows Mobile device could be great - but I have no interest in seeing a Nokia Zune device at all.

[inteller]

i can see one reason Microsoft would do this. Get their music client on every handset and bypass the carriers. If they make it to the point where all the handset makers have Zune on them, then ******* operators like att have to take it or they dont get any phone but the iphone.

i can see a world where a unified zune platform that works on all kinds of phones down to stupid feature phones would be a powerful competitor.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Stinger

Nokia already have their own music store as part of Ovi and it serves way more countries than the Zune store.

A good point. And I also have a hard time believing that the Zune team, who clearly as on the path Apple-inspired path of "we own the software, we own the hardware, we control the experience to make it great" would want to get into the ugly world of having lots of different hardware devices link up into their software. Who gets the tech support call when someone's Nokia phone stops playing back the DRM'd Zune tracks? It just seems hugely messy to me.

[caywen]

I think the Zune phone will be a CE-based device with a super customized version of WinMo7. To compete with the iPhone experience, I think the Zune team will take an internal version of WinMo7, strip it down, optimize it for a specific hardware spec, and build a non-WinMo UI on it.

Remember, it has to be a phone first, and it also needs a browser and media support, etc. I just don't see MS trying to reinvent what it already has this time around.