New Zune Drivers Fuel Fire for Zune Phone Rumors

Posted 01/26/2010 at 2:14pm | by Bart Salisbury

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The rumor-net has been mildly abuzz about the possibility of Microsoft launching its own Zune phone. Within the context of the smartphone marketplace, it makes sense--the Zune has the all the basics for a smartphone, sans the phone. And, if Apple could pull it off, so can Microsoft (albeit after Apple, again, has established market viability). Now comes the smoking gun: new drivers for the Zune that definitely, positively, absolutely confirm there’ll be a Zune phone.

Long Zheng, at istartedsomething.com, shows a text dump of the new Zune driver .inf file. Under device descriptions comes both “%Zune.DeviceDesc%” and “%Phone.DeviceDesc%”. Proof positive! After all, why put something into a device driver that you don’t have (or plan to have)? Better yet, because there are three distinct device entries, it’s a certainty there’ll three different Zune phone models.

Zheng dismissed the notion that these entries are references of Zune integration into Windows Mobile 7. He says “this particular driver references specific hardware IDs that are locked to a vendor (Microsoft) and product which under USB body regulations cannot be masked.”

When will the world be blessed with an actual announcement of a Zune phone? John Paczkowski, of All Things Digital, says expect something that coincides with the World Mobile Conference in February, or the CTIA in in March.

Image Credit: Long Zheng/istartedsomething.com