Microsoft: Let Apple Play with iPhone + iPod

While Apple has traded-off Mac OS X leopard for the sake of shipping the iPhone in mid 2007, Microsoft will not rush to make available a Zune phone in response. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came close to contesting the legitimacy of the assumption that the Redmond Company will add phone capabilities to its Zune digital media player device.

Chris Stephenson, Microsoft General Manager for Zune, has confirmed in the past that a Zune phone is a possibility. However, Stephenson failed to reveal anything in particular in relation to the Zune phone except the fact that the Zune brand could deliver such functionality in the future.

Steve Ballmer, attending a USA Today CEO Forum on the University of Washington campus, was cited by SeattlePI as disputing the very concept of a future Zune phone in favor of Windows Mobile.

"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. We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music," Ballmer answered to a question related to the availability of the Zune phone. "A phone is really a general-purpose device. You want it to make telephone calls. You want to get and receive messages -- text, e-mail, whatever your preference is. You may want music, you may want to play games, you may want to carry your contacts with you, and you may want to pay for things. I think we have to think about the phone instead of as a fixed-function device, a phone is really kind of a general purpose device that we need to have clean and easy to use."