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Microsoft to take on iPhone in December?

updated 02:20 pm EST, Thu February 1, 2007

MS to take on iPhone?

Microsoft has begun planning a Zune-based challenger to Apple's iPhone that recently debuted at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, according to one report. Citing a "sound" informant, CrungeGear indicates that strategists from Microsoft are already solidifying plans for the new phone, and are holding meetings today to plan its final release -- tentatively slated for December of 2007. The cellular handset is expected to mimic the music-only original, according to Electronista, and will forego Microsoft's existing Windows Mobile phone operating system for a custom control scheme. The source says tighter integration with Microsoft's existing hardware and software will be even more critical to the phone's design, and that the Redmond-based company plans to expand the limited Wi-Fi capability of the original Zune by linking the phone with its Xbox 360 game console.

by MacNN Staff

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bsnoel
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2006

0

02/01, 02:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
LOL

Flop Take Two?

ricardogf
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Joined: Jan 2003

0

02/01, 02:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
Bring it on, please...

The Zune is stillborn and this mock iPhone will be even worse, especially if it foregoes the crappy but fairly ubiquitous Windows Mobile system...just as you did with the Play For Sure trash.

MS, you never cease to amaze us with your "trailing attitude"...always copying, always following...and this attitude of being "more like Apple" will just make the fall even harder, because you have no clue on how to do it...bring it on, really...we'll be waiting.

pascalpp
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Joined: Nov 1999

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02/01, 02:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
MS Core Competency

Microsoft would be wise to stick to their core competencies. Oh wait: chief among those is copying Apple.

FastAMX79
Junior Member

Joined: Sep 2000

0

02/01, 02:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
further proof

that MS can NOT develop a product on their own.

suhail
Senior User

Joined: Nov 1999

0

02/01, 02:47pm | report spam | close Reply |
Windows CE!

"�and will forego Microsoft's existing Windows Mobile phone operating system for a custom control scheme."

So Ballmer's comments on YouTube were BS!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5oGaZIKYvo

lol

russellb
Junior Member

Joined: Sep 2001

0

02/01, 02:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Typical Microsnoooozzz

Ok so Apple does what it normally doeas and takes YEARS to develop a product that actually does have a WOW factor.

Microsnooozz is solidifying plans and are holding meetings today and looking at 12 month away Dec 07.

And all they will do is copy apple and do a really bad implementation.

I had the pleasure of installing Vista for the first time yesterday and while I will happily admit it improves on XP IS THAT THE BEST THEY CAN DO AFTER 5 YEARS. It's terrible compared to Mac OSX it tries to imitate OSX everywhere but does it badly.

Please Microsoft bring on your new phone it will only continue to make people look elsewhere for a better product.

e2Sync
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02/01, 02:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
perhaps you didn't get...

(hey MacNN, are you running low on pixels? What's with the short subject lines...)

the memo... When Steve Jobs said "Redmond, start your photocopiers", he was JOKING!!

lmhaffner
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02/01, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
New name...

M$ should just rename itself Orange and be done with it.

Sheesh...

crevatis
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02/01, 03:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Orange?

More like lemon.

dscottbuch
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02/01, 03:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Smoke and Mirrors

This announcement is typical MSFT vapor marketing. They won't/can't do this in this time frame and they know it now but by announcing this they are trying to delay decisions by consumers. This is the worst type of non-productive marketing.

lemuel777
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02/01, 03:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: smoke and mirros

dscottbuch

you are exactly right, Microsoft has always done things this way, but this time it won't work because NO ONE will be waiting around for Microsoft's version of an "iPhone".

dwoodruff
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02/01, 03:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
good

let MS make a crapstick phone. That way all the wads who buy Vista can have an equally deficient phone to match.

windsurfer_nyc
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02/01, 03:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
iPhone + Zune

= the iPhune!

horvatic
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02/01, 04:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
AHHH Ha,ha,ha,haahha!

There Zune is failure and now they think they're going to go up against the iPhone? With what? And how do they expect to get a product out that fast. It took Apple more than 2 years to develop the iPhone. I'm not wasting my time waiting for a phone that will just blue screen on me everytime I want to make a call. What a joke!

Feynman
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2006

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02/01, 04:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
The iToilet

I think Apple should make a killer innovative toilet, that way when Microsoft copies them they will really be putting their money to good use - down the drain!

nativeNYer
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Joined: Apr 2005

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02/01, 04:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
Well

Well, I'd say this is almost definitive proof that MS is actually scared of Apple. They seem to be intent on copying any moves Apple makes right now.

Challenging the iPod with Zune, now working on a challenge to the iPhone. MS is realizing that Apple is gaining significant momentum in the consumer market, and, while MS can't make a good product if their very lives depended on it, they DO realize that the consumer gadget, i.e. non-computer arena is where the big money is going to be as the years go on. Desktop computers and OSes are not viable markets for the long term. Apple is smart to have started down this road with the iPod in '01. They're in a great position for the future.

Microsoft is now trying desperately to catch up, and knows they're in deep doo-doo.

doc e
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02/01, 04:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
Me Too

Since Apple Computer, Inc changed it's name to Apple, Inc. then Microsoft should change it's name to MeTooSoft and just make it official.

WaltFrench
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Joined: Jun 2003

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02/01, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Joy of Partnering w/MSFT

If true, this story will boil a few quarts of blood at HP, Palm and all the other WinCE partners.

It's one thing to not get your offerings right until v3.0, but it's another to end-run your partners by obsoleting their efforts on your behalf. Ditto, those necessary suckers, the customers, who fund your earnings by buying software, music and the like, only to have you obsolete it, the way MSFT did with Zune.

And now, by this report, with the Foonz or however much hip their new brand will tolerate.

malax
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02/01, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
eating your own dogfood

I find it very interesting that MS has had an OS for handhelds for years (Windows CE or whatever its called), and yet as soon as they decide to make a handset of their own they realize that their solution isn't good enough and don't use it. It was good enough to cram a copy of Windows onto a phone when it was just other companies where selling the phone, but now that Apple has rethought the problem with a fresh approach, MS needs to do the same.

On the other hand Apple is using it's underlying OS X technology (to some extent) in the OS for the iPhone. Maybe MS can build on great stuff like the registry in their new not-Windows OS.

G4_Kessel
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02/01, 04:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
...

developers! developers! developers!

developers! developers! developers!

malax
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02/01, 05:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Scoop

According the malax, the OS for the new MS phone (correctly predicted to be called the Froonz by waltfrench in an earlier posting) is none other than DOS. You read it here first!

tsmelker
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02/01, 05:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
that true, e2?

Maybe YOU haven't beeen paying attention. EVERYTHING Micro$oft has ever done has been a ripoff of Apple's ingenuity. The only thing they haven't done is try to build a computer of their own- maybe because they know they'd suck at it (and all the PC manufacturers would sue the pants off them in yet another monopoly suit). You need to pay attention to history, and stop believing Microsoft's over-inflated marketing hype.

jarod
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Joined: Apr 2005

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02/01, 05:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
LOLOLLL

I'd love to see the exec hired for this INNOVATIVE product! Microclowns start your circus starring Steve Baldhead as prime chimp!

jcatma61
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Joined: Nov 2006

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02/01, 06:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
M$FT disaster.

What a total flipping disaster. I was at a retailer over the weekend in Chgo 'burbs and their "Zune" display was untouched.

Even the kid in the store thought the whole zoon thing was a bad joke. This "story" is, too.

What the heck is a "Zune" anyway?

loudpedal
Forum Regular

Joined: Oct 1999

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02/01, 06:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
Following the Vista plan

Yah, and Vista was going to be released in the middle of 2005... Late and medeocre at best. Not the kind of product I'd want to be associated with.

ottawadave
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Joined: Apr 2002

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02/01, 07:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
The Phune In Brown

But the "Phune" will come in exotic brown! Hey, haven't you always wanted to be seen holding a rounded brown thing up to your ear as you walk down the street? And with a belt clip, that slender brown thing can be clinging to the side of your pants. Cool.

:-P

ppayne
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02/01, 11:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
It is to laugh

When SJ goaded Microsoft into challenging them in the iPod/iWhatever arena, I thought they'd see how obvious it was that they should do the opposite.

That being said, I wondered to myself why M$ didn't just make a really good Windows Mobile device with a hard drive and make that the Zune. If i had an iPod that could do wireless, surf the web or do some of the things that a WM device can do, I'd call that pretty cool. No iPod killer but it would have been better than Zune.

limey1
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Joined: Feb 2007

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02/01, 11:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
VaporWare

As is MS's usual modus operandi. It announces a nonexistent product to FUD and take the wind out of the sails of the competition. Rebranding another existing failure (as per Zune) won't work either. However, 5 years too late with Vista, 5 years too late with Zune, and by the time this new exciting product is suitable for the market it'll be five years too late too.

Gorloth
Registered User

Joined: Nov 2001

0

02/02, 12:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
Drugs...Drugs...

He must be under the influence of Washingtom M$ koolaid. Oh wait no spanking for Ballmer. Only in Washington.

jad713
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Joined: Jul 2006

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02/02, 01:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
Did anyone ask Bill?

From Bill's Newsweek/MSNBC interview

Q: Will Microsoft now change its mobile-phone strategy and adopt an end-to-end approach, the way Apple has with the iPhone?

A: No, I don't think so. People like different styling, media storage, capability [in phones]. The benefit we get from having lots of great hardware partners is pretty phenomenal. And our software can run on any one of those things.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16934083/site/newsweek/page/4/

Mongoos150
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Joined: Jun 2006

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02/08, 08:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
Just Doesn't Die!

I would've thought M$ had learned by now... the Zune is huge, ugly, doesn't integrate nearly as well with your desktop as the iPod and is not pleasing to use. The "Zell phone" will surely flop.

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Microsoft to take on iPhone in December?

updated 02:20 pm EST, Thu February 1, 2007

MS to take on iPhone?

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