Bill Gates Says No Zune Phone

January 9, 2008 by ACE

A recent Yahoo News article on Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s interview with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates quotes him saying,

"we will concentrate solely on software"

First the Zune Phone’s on, then it’s off, then it’s on again, now it’s off? If you’re confused about this, read on…

Microsoft has been going back and forth on this for quite some time. Speculation started over a year ago when Microsoft said a Zune phone was definitely in the works. Chris Stephenson, GM for Zune, told the press in Sept. ‘06,

"A Zune phone is definitely part of the future of this brand."

All of that seemed to end with what Steve Ballmer said in April,

"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."

Then in September, it seemed Microsoft was flip-flopping again when Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division said,

"It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think at some point there might some integrated thing,"

Now Bill Gates rings in and says,

"No, we won’t do that. In the so-called smart phone business we will concentrate solely on software with our Windows Mobile program," Gates was quoted as saying in the interview published on Wednesday.
"We have partnerships with a lot of device manufacturers from Samsung to Motorola and this variety brings us significantly more than if we would make our own mobile phone,"

And that’s what we’ve seen in recent uncovered documents. Zune will be integrated into Windows Mobile 7. Let’s hope this is the end of the round-about ’cause I don’t know how much more of this I can take!

Read the original thread on Zune Boards!

Comments

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Trogdor Formally known as Zach	tis an unfortunate shame
01-09-2008, 03:37 PM	#2

CameleonMK ShakableParrot	Awww man.
01-09-2008, 04:13 PM	#3

Gregory	Windows Mobile and Pocket Player go together nicely.
01-09-2008, 04:21 PM	#4

yensed Anti-Fanboy	I think its probably best for Microsoft to stick with making Software for phones. I'm sure they make more Money that way.
01-09-2008, 05:49 PM	#5

NightFire	Yeah, and like they said, they can put anything into it, either Zune or Xbox (I wonder what he means by that by the way), it can be included in.
01-09-2008, 07:25 PM	#6

mr.handsomeman	There may not be a "Zune Phone" but, I heard that there may be a "Zune 3", that may include a phone. So, the words are changed around a bit, but it makes sense. Check out this link: http://www.zunescene.com/zune-3/
01-24-2008, 11:11 AM	#7

ACE	That's simply a concept - not a real thing
01-24-2008, 11:28 AM	#8

MadameMasenko	Unless it was going to be yellow, then Zune was never meant to be a phone. Lets try not to follow apple example.
01-25-2008, 10:46 AM	#9

mr.handsomeman	i know it's a concept, but i mean....it could very well be on it's way.
01-25-2008, 11:04 AM	#10

batosai6306	idk, if bill gates says it's not on the way.. I'm pretty sure it's not on the way. regardless of how you word it... a zune phone or a zune that has a phone built in is still zune+phone. It's kind of hard to get any "read between the lines" speech from those two statements.
01-25-2008, 02:20 PM	#11

k-man2	Ah man, I think a phone would've been pretty awesome but there's still windows mobile 7
01-28-2008, 10:08 AM	#12

mr.handsomeman	Gates is gone already though! You know? I mean, his last day was a long time ago. do you know how much control he has now? I honestly don't know, do any of you?
01-28-2008, 10:10 AM	#13

jasonsplace	I don't think that a Zune Phone ever really made any sense. Microsoft already has a Phone OS that beats the iPhone hands down. As long as they focus on improving the OS someone will make a phone using the OS that isn't meant for a serious business user.
01-29-2008, 07:47 AM	#14

mr.handsomeman

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonsplace

I don't think that a Zune Phone ever really made any sense. Microsoft already has a Phone OS that beats the iPhone hands down. As long as they focus on improving the OS someone will make a phone using the OS that isn't meant for a serious business user.

if that was true, then the sales would prove that right? What are the stats on that?

01-29-2008, 07:49 AM mr.handsomeman is offline

#15

Jon Life is calling me back	In order for the Zune Phone to work it has to give something more than the iPhone. Perhaps a 30GB Zune Phone or maybe Xbox Games!
01-29-2008, 07:52 AM	#16

jasonsplace

Quote:

Originally Posted by oharaj

if that was true, then the sales would prove that right? What are the stats on that?

From what I found, the iPhone sales slightly passed Windows Mobile in Q3 of last year. They are still behind blackberry though and I think that Windows Mobile is more intuitive and feature filled than them as well. The NYTimes Projects that this year Apple will sell 10 Million iPhones and Microsoft will sell 20 Million Windows Mobile devices. That's twice as many for Microsoft but of course that is just projections. I know 3 people now who have switched from iPhones to Windows Mobile devices for the feature set. They said that they'd never go back unless Apple would start focusing more on features than eye candy. That's all that there Windows Mobile device was lacking. That being said, there are a lot of crappy Windows Mobile devices that give it a bad name. If I could choose any phone right now though it would be a T-Mobile Wing.

01-29-2008, 08:13 AM jasonsplace is offline

#17

mr.handsomeman	I love t-mobile. anyways. it looks like microsoft is going to be doing pretty good then huh? I don't know, they do need some more eye candy though, that would be the best thing to do.
01-29-2008, 08:15 AM	#18

Samo	eye candy is not what makes a good product, microsoft will never face that fact. the only thing microsoft should be focusing on now zune wise is newer better software. once they have a 100% stable firmware with no glitches and wutnot, then its time to move on to the next step, tho i still don't think they will make a phone ever then
01-29-2008, 09:51 AM	#19

jasonsplace

Microsoft has been a company to focus overall more on interface than eye candy. Unfortunately though eye candy does sell and you can't forget about it all together. You just need a good balance. If you don't believe me, look at Mac OS. When they release a new version most of there new features are eyecandy related. Coverflow is nothing bu eye candy yet that feature along with a bunch of features that Windows has had for a long time are what propelled the latest Mac OS release to be there most successful yet.