News about the Zune has been all over the place this year but things are starting to take shape. It looks like we can expect an announcement early next year for Zune Mobile. It has been described as a set of premium mobile services and ever since I first heard about it I have been wondering exactly what we might see.

I’m sure the first thing we can expect to find in a Zune Mobile is the Zune Marketplace complete with unlimited downloads for Zune Pass subscribers. Having a music subscription service on a mobile phone should sweet but what more could they do? Could the Zune software turn existing mobile phones into Zune Social devices? Why not? With a Live enabled Zune Phone I could be listening to the FM radio and find a new tune i just have to send to my girlfriend on her Zune enabled phone from [insert random phone maker] with our Zune Pass subscription. FM radio, yes I do sometimes listen to the radio and chances are yo will here a new song you like one day.

With Zune Mobile I can share the song with my friends and grab it in the Zune MarketPlace when someone else sends me something new. What else could it do? How about it that song was from a soundtrack to the latest blockbuster movie? With features mentioned in Zune VideoX we might expect to see a recommendation to rent the movie to go with our new favorite song. A Zune Movie Pass could give subscribers access to unlimited movie rentals via download similar to what you find with Xbox and Netflix right now. Zune VideoX is supposed to be a part of Project Pink and a just perfect for a set of premium mobile services.

Zune VideoX is not Zune Marketplace revisited, sources say. Instead, it is Microsoft’s attempt to apply the lessons learned with the success of the Xbox Live Marketplace to the Zune market, said one source who asked not to be named. It would be a single hub where Zune users could buy and download music, videos, TV shows and more entertainment content.

Seadragon is the first iPhone application from Microsoft. Engineers claimed they needed a large install base of smartphone users so they could test the high definition image software application on real world devices with a built in graphics processor. Zune Mobile has to work with the high quality phone cameras available from suppliers like Nokia and so we should expect that the Zune mobile software is capable of maximizing that available technology.

Seadragon is best known as a core technology behind Microsoft’s Photosynth photo-browsing program. It’s designed for zooming smoothly in, out and around photos over the Internet, regardless of bandwidth constraints or image size. Seadragon’s technological trick is to store images in multiple resolutions and deliver only the bits needed to present the view a user wants at any given moment.

I would say we can expect image handling on the level of Photosynth on the next generation smartphones and Zune Mobile will be ready for it. Rumor has it the Zune use interface team will be working with the Windows Mobile team. it seems odd to me that we hear rumors of them getting started on this now when it appears obvious they should have been working together like 2 years ago but I am certain they have their reasons. I guess we can say there are a lot of things coming togethber that may be a part of Zune Mobile and bringing all the Zune, Xbox and Windows Mobile offers together is not as easy as it may seem.

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