From Adweek:

The Office shift follows a pitch for a new Microsoft mobile offering won by McCann's T.A.G. unit, said sources. JWT, McCann and fellow roster shop Crispin, Porter + Bogusky competed for that assignment, for which the client used the code-name Pink.

It's a nice confirmation of previous rumors that Microsoft was shopping the project around, and that's about the end of the new information. But a quick trip to the McCann T.A.G. site reveals a portfolio that contains three videos for the Zune, including two ads and a trade reel. Zune? Pink? Zunephone! Pinkphone! Pink Zune! Pink Zune phone! And so on.

Now, these ads are nestled among a fair number of Xbox promotional materials, so it's clear that this is one of Microsoft's go-to teams for advertising in general. But hell, since we still haven't seen any kind of confirmation that the Pink phone's alleged specs and Windows Mobile 7 rumors are real, that Pink is a hardware device, or that the project even still exists, we'll take what we can get. [Adweek via Slashgear]

Whether or not this device is the fabled "Pink" Zune Phone is unclear, but Team Xbox is pretty sure that the device they've heard about lacks a phone.

Codenamed the "xYz" during discussions, the device will feature a WVGA touchscreen and a series of new hardware features not currently seen on the market (these features are unclear, and could include WiMax or graphics processing chipsets). It will implement Live Anywhere in a way that unites Microsoft's digital storefronts, allowing music and movies to play on the xYz and Xbox.

The xYz is meant to compete with Apple, Sony, Nintendo, but also Google through implementation of Live Searchmaps, news, etc.

All in all, the device described by Team Xbox sounds a lot like a PSP with smarter connectivity. And while such a product would certainly be interesting, especially from the company that's (imho) the leading console developer in the world, it really needs the phone angle pointed out in the Mary-Jo Foley device to compete for our precious pocket space.

So are the Zune Phone and xYz separate, or similar, devices? Maybe the Zune Phone just the iPhone to the xYz's iPod touch?

Oh right, and we should remember, this is all just rumor for now. [Team Xbox and T3 Thanks Joel!]

Jesus talked with our friend Dennis Liuthe guy behind Pretending to Work and Office the Movie. He confirmed that the Twitter account officethemovie is not connected with him or Microsoft:

"Officethemovie" was a rogue twitter. "Office2010movie" is the right Twitter page.

According to her, this "may or may not be the final specs for the Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1," the hardware specs necessary to run Windows Mobile 7. She says that it is also the heart of Pink, which the rumormongers say will be an iPhone/Pre/Android killer made by Microsoft: The infamous Zune Phone.

The list starts with core requirements that will make us very happy: ARM v6+ processor, with an Open GL ES 2.0-capable graphics chipthis may be the TI3430 or the Nvidia Tegra. To show all the eye candy there will be a 3.5" 800 x 480 or 854 x 480 pixels touchscreen. The specification also points out at other things in Pink, like 3-megapixel camera, GPS, light sensor, 3-axis compass, accelerometer, USB, Bluetooth, and full Wi-Fi support.

If this is all real and Microsoft actually releases a Windows 7 phone with these specs any time this year, the smartphone battlefield will really get interesting (and bloody.) [ZDnet]

First, the tweets:

June 2009 will be an important month for Zune lovers.

Naturally, this got some other Twitterers a little excited. The followup:

New product launch, that's all I'm allowed to say. Hold off from buying an iPhone/Pre. :)

Well, that's a pretty clear statement: Don't buy any of these popular phones, because we're releasing a product soon. Wow?

Granting that this is a Microsoft-run Twitter and that the announcement is well-informed, here's what it would mean: Microsoft could be offering up a combination of a Zune phone reference design and combination Windows Mobile/Zune software to device manufacturers, come June. But until these errant Tweets are addressed by someone who we know can speak authoritatively for MS (not some low-level marketing minion), this is about as convincing as any of the other countless Zunephone/Pink "reports" we've heard to datethat is to say, mildly.

Mainly, it's the source of these rumors that bothers me. The info comes from a Twitter account that claims to be connected to Office 2010 The Movie, a Microsoft advertising page promoting the next version of MS Office. Thing is, I can't find a link to this Twitter page anywhere on office2010themovie.com, nor can I find mentions of @officethemovie by any other notable Microsoft Twitter accounts. It is linked! Hmm.

There's plenty more to be suspicious of. The Twitter account is brand-new, and their limited tweets regarding Office have been strange:

Office 2010 will include Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks integrated right into Word. That's just a hint of what's to come!

Social networking in Word? Not to mention that half of these Tweets were posted through Tweetie, a Mac client.

Beyond these superficial oddities, there's a conceptual problem. Why would MS allow a Zune phone announcement to leak through a low-profile, unconnected Twitter account, especially when such an announcement runs directly counter to the company line?

UPDATE: This Twitter account is link to from the OfficetheMovie website, but at best that makes the Twitter account the official mouthpiece of a part of the marketing team for a Microsoft product with little-to-no relation to the Zune project, not an infallible voice of the Zune division, much less the company as a whole. It'll be interesting to see how this is dealt with when Redmond wakes up. Oh here.

UPDATE: Dennis Liu, the Office Movie guy, writes to us to clarify:

Officethemovie" was a rogue twitter. "Office2010movie" is the right twitter page.

[Neowin]

Naturally, details are scarcealthough the word is that the device will be a multimedia touchscreen that will push both Windows Mobile and the Windows Marketplace. It is also rumored that a third party may handle the manufacturing of the device. Could this be the Zune software "Pink" project we have heard so much about? [WSJ]

AdWeek says the three ad firms, McCann Erickson, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and JWT, are vying for the ad run. The first firm has worked with Microsoft before and the second is in charge of the I'm a PC and laptop hunter ads.

There's no target for when the ads will hit, but Microsoft will choose a winner by the end of May. [AdWeek via CNET]

In this way, Microsoft is able to have their cake and eat it too. They build the bar high through a concept, then they pit manufacturers against one another to polish and mass manufacture the idea. Are you confused? That's only because it is confusing. Foley summarizes the point better:

There will be Zune phones. There will be other kinds of Zune-enabled mobile devices. But they won't be crafted - beyond the reference chassis - by Microsoft.

Even the original Zune was made by Toshiba, technically. [ZDNet]

Update: Zune Marketing Exec Brian Seitz says he's heard nothing about a Microsoft Branded phone launching at any upcoming shows, which seems to rule out the possiblilty of it being a Zune Phone, if anything at all.

MSFT Smart-Phone Launch? Multiple industry sources are telling us that MSFT is planning to launch a smartphone. We are told it will be a 2H launch. We do not see this as landscape changing, much like their Zune launch.

According to the memo (excerpted above), written by Analyst firm Broadpoint AmTech, the phone would hit the market in the second half of 2009, and the project it would not overtake the established players, such as Apple and Blackberry, as much as it would flush out the small-time smartphone manufacturers.

They remain strictly speculatory throughout the memo, but call the idea of a Microsoft phone "puzzling," and suggest it would create tension between Microsoft and existing WinMo handset makers.

Now the question is: Will it be a Zune Phone, or merely a Microsoft-branded WinMo handset? [All Things D]

Well, the actual response was a little less Victorian (as reported by Wired Epicenter):

"Basically, what happened last week, Steve [Ballmer] said a couple of things about the category," said Adam Sohn, head of Microsoft's Zune marketing division, causing speculation that Microsoft would stop making Zunes. However, he clarified, "we're not getting out of the hardware business at all," adding that Microsoft is "deeply committed" to continuing to its Zune hardware strategy.

For what it's worth, this is a direct statement from Microsoftthe crux of last week's Financial Times story was not found in a direct quote, but rather in a section of analysis. Says the FT:

[The future of the Zune] lies in planting the software and online service linked to the player in other devices.

Given that music phones have long since come of age, such a strategywhereby the Zune is a software platform primarily intended for the multitude of Windows Mobile handsetswould make sense. But for now at least, the standalone Zune seems to have some time left. [Wired EpicenterThanks, Joel!]

" Windows 7 will hit public beta (or just grab the torrent now)
" Windows Mobile will get Flash by March (weeeeee!)
" Two Halo games for Xbox 360 (this one and this one) this year
" Less terrible home networking ("I'm not kidding" says TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld.)

It's hard to be exciting when everything you're announcing is an open "secret." The Windows 7 public beta would be a biggie, except we've already touched, groped and licked it, as has everyone else who really cares at this point. So, Ballmer, please, please, please pull a Zunephone out of your pants. I actually want one. Well, not the one from your pants, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. [TechCrunch]

Well, at least no Zune Phone as we're hearing it. A few days ago, some analysts stirred up the rumors of a Zune specific piece of hardware this week, complete with hardware details, which Barrons quoted. CNBC declared that a Zune Phone, called Project Pink, was slated for CES. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet, who separated the Zune Phone hardware from the Pink project weeks ago reminded us that Pink is not a piece of hardware but a platform of services that could allow Zune like services to run on platforms like Windows Mobile. (Although Mary Jo Foley told me today that she thinks that it would be powerful if Pink services ran on other devices, and I agree.) So leave the hardware and Pink apart for a moment. Mary Jo believes Pink could come at CES and with it, a platform for Zune like content on mobile devices, but in line with what Seitz has said on behalf of Microsoft and what Mary Jo Foley believes, I think the Analyst and CNBC have the details slightly skewed.

Both CNBC and the analyst Barrons quoted could have been talking to a manufacturer of a phone, describing a specific implementation of Zune like features on a given set of hardware, via Pink components. But coming from a company that builds their best devices in house, I don't think we can call a Zune Phone a Zune Phone until we see actual devices designed in house design by the Entertainment and Devices team. (To me, this stands in contrast with Google and its Android platform, where every implementation of the OS is a Google Phone, since they have no claim to making great hardware.)

Based on all this, I reiterate that my best guess is that we have is a good chance of seeing Pink, but not a Zune Phone, at CES 2009. [Thanks to Mary Jo Foley for her expertise]

This has actually been the consistent beat on the drum for at least seven months, with Microsoft itself dropping hints that it wanted to combine Danger's consumer-friendly OS expertise with the Zune. You know what? It actually makes us pretty excited. A ZunePhone made by Danger might be the Microsoft smartphone we've been really waiting for. [CNBC]

"We’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences."

That sounds a lot like making use of Danger, who specializes in consumer OSes. Like say, a Zune phone designed by Danger—a Zune phone, after all, would be such an end-an-end to experience, and fill in Microsoft's obvious gap in the consumer smartphone niche, which even BlackBerry is getting into. JKontheRun has unspecified info that Zune phone meetings are kicking up, to boot.

Here's the real question: Would a Zune phone persuade the Zune guy to keep his tattoos? [All Things D via Macrumors]

Even though the Zune and Xbox product brands are separate, they are ultimately meant to connect to the same central network. The online services for Xbox, Zune and future products will merge. Video will be a key part of this service.

"Fast forward a little bit," and there'll be an all-in-one setup stratified "like DirecTV," where there's a "basic, there is enhanced, there is movie pack and NFL Sunday ticket," so it's like Xbox Live Gold and Silver, but with more customization. Customization, in fact, appears to be a core selling point of the service.

Maybe the J in J. Allard stands for Jesus:

What I want to do at E&D [the entertainment and devices division] is build an entertainment service that can connect, that has a screen and buttons and a speaker, so you can watch what you want, where you want, how you want. Maybe you are a commuter, and what you are all about is ESPN. I'll give you ESPN your way.

But as much forward looking as Allard did during the interview, he also took a look back, to the early days of Zune:

I'm a big believer in failing fast... If we skipped last year, we would have never come out with the product we did this year... We learned that because of the shortfalls in the PC client [software], the device was less useful... People hated that there was no podcasts, that they couldn't fill their cultural cache [the Zune] with the stuff that was meaningful to them.

A cellphone operator is not best positioned to decide how to lay out a menu. I think the iPhone came out and showed people a great experience, and in some ways got everybody to check their ego at the door.

What you will see from us is more of these signature experiences. When you see the Zune, you'll say say, I want my music experience on the phone to be like that. Hey, I want my telecommunication experience on the phone to be more like that.

Microsoft's J Allard told Reuters that gaming on a portable music player has been done before, but badly (undoubtedly pointing to iPod games), so it's a tricky proposition for them to do wellmeaning they'll have to figure that out first before diving in. As for the Zune phone, they're focusing on getting the music and video part down first before tacking on other functionality. However, both are a possibility, because the new Zune OS is built on top of Windows CE, the underlying technology for Windows Mobile and Gizmondo. [Reuters]

Although the exact wording of the question could have been something along the lines of, "OK, suppose someone puts a cream pie to Bill Gates's face and says 'you can either make a Zunephone, or things are going to get messy again...'"

That stands in contrast this with Balmer's statements. You, reader, should realize that this is still not proof. For example, Windows without security popups would be "Not Unreasonable" but you don't see that anywhere, do you? Note to Microsoft: You guys are wimps if you don't step into the Apple arena with a Zune phone. Battlemodo! [Yahoo!]