Microsoft Zune phone to showcase WinMo7 at MWC

The hottest rumours surrounding MWC 2010 at the moment are all about Windows Mobile 7, which apparently will be announced at the show. Not just Windows Mobile 7, though – a brand new Microsoft phone.

Yes, it’s time to roll out those well-worn Microsoft Zune rumours out again!

The Zune phone has been rumoured ever since Apple released the iPhone (iPad + phone) and people applied the same logic to Microsoft (Zune + phone…oooh, that woks!).

However, it never materialised, which is perhaps just as well as an awful music player (the Zune) coupled with an awful operating system (Windows Mobile) was destined to be the worst pairing since Britney and K-Fed.

So what’s changed? Why has Microsoft decided that now is the time to release a Zune phone (assuming it’s going to)?

A Windows Mobile showcase

Windows Mobile has not been having a good time lately. Although Microsoft updated it last year to version 6.5, the fact is it’s always been horrible, it’s still horrible, and even the glorious sugar-coated interface that HTC built on top of it still can’t get away from the fact that, well, it’s horrible!

Worse, most mobile phone companies have abandoned it in favour of the sexier Android OS.

So Microsoft find themselves struggling just to catch up. WIndows Mobile 7 needs to be not just good – it needs to be better, not just than the iPhone but better than the Nexus One as well.

What better way for Microsoft to do this than to take ownership of the entire product – phone, interface and OS, just like Google did with the Nexus One.

It makes sense, and certainly Microsoft desperately needs to pull something out of the hat. Whether that’s the Zune phone (remember the maths: a bad MP3 player + a bad OS!) or not remains to be seen.

[Source: MobileCrunch]