What the Zune Phone Needs to Beat the iPhone

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/what-the-zune-phone-needs-to-beat-the-iphone-233584.php' target='_blank'>http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/what-the-zune-phone-needs-to-beat-the-iphone-233584.php</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>&quot;Now that we're pretty sure the Zune Phone is coming, what do we want to see in it? Well, even though Microsoft's been leaving a lot of features out of first-generation products&mdash;especially when compared to Apple's feature-rich phone&mdash;here's a list of stuff that we think the Zune Phone needs to have to beat the iPhone... Of course, we'll be lucky if we see even a quarter of these features implemented on the first Zune Phone, but if we had to design one, this is what we'd want to see.&quot;</em></p><p>The features in question include: a Touchscreen, Wi-Fi and 3G Synching, OSX Compatibility and and Open Application Interface to name a few. Personally, I think the 'Streaming media from MCE or Xbox 360' would be the killer app here and would likely sway many Zune owners to buy an Xbox and Xbox owners to buy a Zune. What features do you think are must-haves for the Zune Phone?</p>

[andre]

i actually think a better UI would do it for me...there's nothing like eye candy to get some ooohhs and ahhhs. I say use the zune UI as much as possible and try to distance the zune phone from its windows mobile cousin and you have a winner. remember the target market for the zune phone is not the business user so please don't put in any mobile office stuff in there. just make a great phone that just happens to play zune protected songs.

my wife has motorola Q and i hate the UI. this is the main reason why i am not on the windows mobile bandwagon and i would only guess that the higher up at MS would try to make zune phone similar to windows mobile.

[Sage]

My advice is simple - don't try and compete with the iPhone.

Create a device that is easy to use, packs a decent amount of memory and retails at a price that a lot of people can afford.

Xbox 360 and Vista integration is probably a must-have feature though. Microsoft should stick to their strenghs and let Apple get on with making new looking but overly expensive and large phones.

[Macguy59]

The scuttlebutt is that [if] a Zune "phone" makes an appearance it won't be a cellular wireless device. Instead it would use VoIP similar to Vonage.

[DaveLG526]

This doesn't seem to support a Zune phone but rather something else.


http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518724937


http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-4013A1.pdf