Microsoft Mulling Windows Mobile/Zune Convergence

• Posted: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Gadget

While continuing to deny reports it is working on a mobile phone based on its Zune portable media device, Microsoft is actively soliciting feedback on how the Zune might more effectively interoperate with devices based on the software giant's Windows Mobile OS.

"I'm wondering if there are any opportunities for us to improve the experience for people who use both devices (a Zune and a Windows Mobile phone)," writes Microsoft blogger "Mel" at the Windows Mobile Team Blog. "For example, viewing your Zune Social network in IEMobile, converting a Zune playlist into WMA ringtones, converting Zune's artwork to Windows Mobile themes, showing your Windows Mobile contacts as pictures in Zune etc. If you can think of similar interesting or compelling scenarios, we'd love to hear them."

Among the dozens of comments following the blog post, the most common response calls for Microsoft to replace the Windows Media Player installed on Windows Mobile-based devices with the Zune software, effectively creating a single media player that spans both devices. "Currently you are just making our lives much more difficult with this parallel development and incompatibilities," writes one respondent.

Another notes he must create new playlists after transferring music from Zune to his phone because Windows Media Player can't read Zune playlists, with a follow-up commenter complaining he can't transfer music that he downloaded under his Zune subscription plan to his Windows Mobile device because of DRM restrictions. [FierceDeveloper]

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