Microsoft has ignored the weight of public opinion when it comes to mobile phones and announced that the first version of its new mobile operating system will be lacking in two vital areas.

When Apple launched the iPhone way back when, two of the most common short-fallings complained about by Apple naysayers were the device’s lack of multitasking for third party applications, and its inability to copy and paste chunks of text.

Apple has long since fixed the text manipulation issue, and the company is widely expected to introduce multitasking in the next refresh of the hardware and OS predicted to be coming in June.

But it looks like Microsoft engineers have been looking the other way as the company has announced that neither copy and paste or multitasking will be included in the first iteration of the Windows Phone Series 7 operating system.

Although the first models running Windows Phone 7 won’t be on the market until the end of this year, Microsoft has already begun to show off a few of the devices that will run its next smartphone operating system.

Asus Windows Phone 7 SmartphoneSo far, Microsoft has given the world a brief glimpse of three upcoming models, each from a different company.

The first of these to be revealed was on display at the announcement of this new operating system in Barcelona last month. This smartphone was created by Asus, and right now this company is saying it is for demonstration purposes only. However, it’s possible it may actually be released to the public.

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Microsoft phone system hits reset on digital music | Reuters

To date, Microsoft’s effort to address the digital music market has largely focused on its Zune player and Zune Pass subscription service, which have won favorable reviews but few customers. But with the recent unveiling of its Windows Phone 7 Series operating system at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Microsoft hopes to reboot its struggling digital music strategy.

Even the well-received Zune HD device, introduced last fall, hasn’t been enough to convince music fans to convert to the Zune Pass. The company says it has sold only 3.8 million players since 2006, and NPD Group estimated in November that it has a 2 percent share of the U.S. portable media player market, compared with 70 percent for Apple’s iPod.

So Microsoft has made it a priority to expand the Zune service to other platforms. In November, it added the Zune’s video service to its Xbox Live network, consisting of more than 20 million worldwide users of the Xbox 360 gaming console. Since then, Zune communications director Jose Pinero says the number of daily HD video downloads and streams has doubled. Now, Microsoft plans to use its Windows Phone 7 platform to bring Zune to mobile customers.

“Anybody who gets a Windows Phone 7 Series phone is going to get a Zune within that device,” Pinero says.

The Windows 7 Series Zune Phone will integrate the entire suite of Microsoft applications and services including the basic business and contact services such as Office and Outlook but also Xbox and Zune for the first true all in one device with tight integration of the separate ecosystems on 3 different screens.

It’s a long ways off and the mobile smartphone market is going to get a bit crowded with all the competing systems. Who will Microsoft take from if they want to increase marketing share? Will partnerships with existing handset makers be enough to chip away at Apple or will the Windows Phone make a real challenge to their strong position?

TMCnet | Mobile World Congress News

Microsoft is not about the let Apple enjoy the limelight when it comes to portable media players and smartphones. The company’s highly-rated ZuneHD portable media player is now a phone.

At MWC 2010, Microsoft’s press event, the Zune phone finally took center stage, welcomed by a number of approving nods from audience attendees – according to a review in CNET.

This Windows Phone 7 Series is truly more than simply a Zune HD with a phone added to it. This portable device actually combines some of Microsoft’s most successful products, such as Windows Mobile, Zune, Xbox and Microsoft Office – who wouldn’t want this device?

The Windows 7 Series Zune Phone will integrate the entire suite of Microsoft applications and services including the basic business and contact services such as Office and Outlook but also Xbox and Zune for the first true all in one device with tight integration of the separate ecosystems on 3 different screens.

It’s a long ways off and the mobile smartphone market is going to get a bit crowded with all the competing systems. Who will Microsoft take from if they want to increase marketing share? Will partnerships with existing handset makers be enough to chip away at Apple or will the Windows Phone make a real challenge to their strong position?

TMCnet | Mobile World Congress News

Microsoft is not about the let Apple enjoy the limelight when it comes to portable media players and smartphones. The company’s highly-rated ZuneHD portable media player is now a phone.

At MWC 2010, Microsoft’s press event, the Zune phone finally took center stage, welcomed by a number of approving nods from audience attendees – according to a review in CNET.

This Windows Phone 7 Series is truly more than simply a Zune HD with a phone added to it. This portable device actually combines some of Microsoft’s most successful products, such as Windows Mobile, Zune, Xbox and Microsoft Office – who wouldn’t want this device?

Microsoft’s smartphone-related rollout at Mobile World Congress on Feb. 15 could be a mobile operating system with a flashy Zune-like interface and lack of Flash support, according to online rumors. PPC Geeks is reporting through unnamed sources that Microsoft’s offering will include no multitask support and that Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Microsoft has kept the subject of its announcement under wraps, but executives have nonetheless suggested that it will be a major update to the company’s struggling mobile operating system franchise, currently facing intense competitive pressure from the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Google Android.

One of the many unanswered questions about Windows Phone 7 Series is what the application development situation will be like. A few details have started to emerge; through both official and unofficial channels (via WM PowerUser).

We already know that Windows Phone 7 Series will look and feel completely unlike Windows Mobile. We know that it will support applications and that those applications will be for sale through the Marketplace.

Microsoft has hired a new firm to manage their content license and music  rights acquisitions and industry insiders claim they are making a wise move if they intend on keeping the music subscription service rolling forward in to the new Windows Mobile Phones programs.

Microsoft hires new firm for Zune Pass | MP3 Insider – CNET Reviews

In what is likely a reaction to recent complaints of disappearing music in the Zune Marketplace, Microsoft has hired an outside firm to help clear music for its Zune Pass subscription service.

In an announcement today, Music Reports Inc. revealed an agreement made with Microsoft to “administer the music publishing licensing and royalty accounting for the Zune Pass subscription service in the United States.”

To anyone who has looked at Microsoft’s highly-rated Zune HD portable media player and wished it were a phone — your prayers have been answered. Yesterday, at Microsoft’s press event for MWC 2010, the long-rumored “Zune phone” was finally thrust into the spotlight and treated to approving nods by many in attendance.

To be fair, the Windows Phone 7 Series is more than just a Zune HD with a phone slapped in. We’re finally looking at a portable device that melds some of Microsoft’s most successful products, including Windows Mobile, Zune, Xbox, and Microsoft Office. But make no mistake, there’s a whole lot of Zune in the Windows Phone mobile OS. Everything from the touchscreen keyboard, to the “twist” style user interface, look and behave just like Microsoft’s latest Zune HD portable media player.

New mobile OS from Microsoft to launch this holiday season, hardware will be consistently high quality

There’s a sort of beautiful symmetry in Microsoft’s mobile phone operating system announcement which aired today at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Holiday season 2009 Microsoft unleashed Windows 7, a desktop operating system that turned people’s preconceptions upside down and fueled unprecedented sales. This year it will look to do the same, with the release of Windows Mobile 7.

At long last, the Zune Phone is here. Microsoft isn’t calling it that–apparently it thought the name Windows Phone 7 Series rolled off the tongue a bit more easily–but the next generation of Microsoft’s smartphone software not only features the entire Zune HD software and services experience (just like the iPod became a component of the iPhone), but the entire user interface itself bears a close resemblance to the Zune HD.

To be clear, Microsoft isn’t building the hardware like it did with Zune–rather, partners like HTC, LG, and Samsung will do that work. But a lot of what the company learned from several iterations of Zune design has been rolled into its mobile platform.

I was eating more and moving around less. Working from home can often mean long hours sitting in a chair pecking away at the keyboard and weight gain and poor circulation are issues. I was wearing large mens clothing and actually enjoying the size for a short while until I realized how sluggish I had become. Want to know what I did? I bought a Zune and starting doing more physical activity both inside and outside the house. My weight bounced back and my large mens clothing went into storage. I call it my fat clothes and I save it for the next kid we have. I still like my Zune and I still spend as much time as I can outside but I’ve been working a lot and I can feel my pants squeezing me in the waist more so since the holiday feasting. I’m loading some new tunes on the Zune to kick my mood in gear and motivate my body again before I have to dig out the box labeled “phat boy”. Whats on your playlist?

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Spending for online advertising has increased but more money is going into the hands of big companies like Google or Yahoo who dominate the industry. Small business owners searching for an edge are being drowned out by huge advertisers utilizing seo practices once implored by small business innovators. Major companies like Ebay and Amazon have taken over ecommerce and social networks are capturing an ever increasing portion of the advertising market as more users spend hours on end chatting and networking on sites like Facebook and MySpace and advertisers take over their own micro advertising campaigns per site. If you want to help the small business website owner than make sure you leave the website by clicking out on one of their advertisers and showing your support.

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Microsoft
has cut the price of its Zune HD portable media player, although it is not clear whether this is permanent price drop or just part of a promotion.

Microsoft has said that price drop may be temporary. The 16GB Zune HD is now available for $200 from the Microsoft store, whilst the 32GB model is now available for $270.

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

Three new hardware devices or stock keeping units (SKU) is certainly interesting. Hopefully what we’ll find are three new Zune Mobile Phones running Windows Mobile 7 and Zune software. We have written previously about the possibiliyt of having a business and personal edition of the new Microsoft phone but the 3rd option is intriguiging. What could the 3rd Zunephone be?

Updated Zune software drivers hints at Zune “Phone” – istartedsomething

New to this version of the driver which was actually generated on October 20, 2009 are several lines which pretty much speak for themselves.

[Microsoft.NTx86]
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\MS_COMP_MTPZ
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0710
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_063E
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0640
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0641
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0642
%ZuneIp.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZIP, umb\urn:microsoft-com:device:mtpz:1

; Localizable strings
Msft = “Microsoft”
Zune.DeviceDesc = “Zune”
…
Phone.DeviceDesc = “Phone”

I like the idea of offering two different models for business and personal use. It makes sense for business users to focus on business features but lets hope the Zune software can be installed if say for instance your business involves music or you want to enjoy your phone after work ours. Maybe you can login to a Business mode with scaled down features and even lock the phone into these settings based on the time of day. Of course that might make to much sense for some business owners or even Microsot. I suppose they just have to have two phones with one login each instead of one phone with two different modes.

The phone will be a partnership and not manufactured by Microsoft, according to the new rumors, and it will not be made in the existing Zune factory. Microsoft will probably do what Google has done and brand a phone by HTC or some other phone hardware maker. Why did we wait two years for this? Why din’t they just port the Zune software over to existing phones a long time ago even if they were working on some super new mobile opertatoing system? By branding the Zune early on as mobile music subscription service it may have had a real chance against Apple and the iPod/iPhone/Mac powerhouse combination it appears they have had the vision to mimic. instead it’s been laughed at as half assed and a joke by everyone who never owned a Zune player.

Check out the article below and other Zune rumors on Bing or Google for more ideas on that they have been working on for so long.

Technorati Tags: zune, zune phone, zunephone, microsoft

Zune Phone Could Fulfill Microsoft’s ‘3 Screens’ Wish – PC World

Zune Phone Could Fulfill Microsoft’s ‘3 Screens’ Wish
Microsoft’s mobile play is still a mystery, but reports about WinMo 7 and a Zune-like Microsoft phone provide new clues.

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Tech years are longer than dog years and these past two years may as well have been 20 as far as Microsoft is concerned as a competitor in the mobile marketplace. Windows Mobile 7 looks like vaporware and if it ever is released it wont be anything more than a new shine on old code.

Microsoft screwed Zune and their entire mobile market play by waiting what amounts to an eternity to release a look what we copied from someone else device. Does anyone but us Zune fans care about the Zunephone.

Microsoft To Unveil Zune Phone? — InformationWeek

Microsoft is planning to introduce a Windows Mobile-based phone in the coming weeks in order to keep up with rivals Apple and Google, according to a financial analyst.

Jefferies stock picker Katherine Egbert said the company would likely unveil the device next month at the Mobile World Congress in San Francisco.

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