Mobile Phone Blog:

Rumours have abounded for a while, that Microsoft would, at some point, jump into the phone market with more than just an operating system. Despite Microsoft strenuously denying they would ever do such a thing, a lot of people are still convinced Microsoft will release their very own, fully Microsoft-branded mobile phone.

Well, according to Tech Crunch, some new rumours have popped up to fan the flames again… but this time, they’re vastly more intriguing, as they come directly from Microsoft…

And they concern something called the Zune. Relax, if you haven’t heard of it (I’m guessing not many in the UK have, they’re about as hard to come by as rocking horse doings); essentially, what the Zune is is Microsoft’s answer to the iPod. A portable music/media player, with an FM radio built in, essentially.

In the words of the Microsoft Twitter post Tweet thing: “June 2009 will be an important month for Zune lovers.”

That in itself doesn’t mean an awful lot. It might just be a new version of the Zune. It’s the follow-up Tweet that is intriguing, as it says the June event is for a new product launch, and that Zune lovers should “hold off from buying an iPhone or Palm Pre“.

Now that’s more intriguing. After all, if it’s just a new music player, why would the boys in Redmond tell users specifically to hold off on buying a new phone? Are Microsoft finally going to come out and say they have been working on a new phone? Will it be a Zune-phone (seems logical, if they are indeed making one)? Will it run on Windows Mobile like the upcoming Toshiba TG01? Or, since Microsoft bought manufacturer Danger, will it be the successor to the Sidekick teen-oriented semi-smartphone-things?

So many questions! One thing’s for sure, though… if this is a phone launch, then with the next iPhone and the Palm Pre allegedly being launched in the same month, June could get very interesting indeed!

[UPDATE: The Twitter feed this story came from has since been proved to be fake. Which means this rumour is a big load of old cobblers. This has not made me happy...]

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