Zune HD looks promising

I’m very interested in getting some hands-on time with the new Zune HD. To me, it looks like the Zune team is finally, and I mean finally, maybe, just maybe, heading in the right direction–namely to provide a purseable/pocketable tablet. That means focusing more on the connectivity, a browser, and apps. It shouldn’t have ever been primarily about the music. That was one of the first bits of feedback I gave the team way back when.

Of course, there’s more to do. Zune has a long way to go to provide a device that makes sense for Microsoft and its ecosystem. And by the sounds of it, it appears that Microsoft is planning on taking its time, in part by holding up some progress on the Zune in order to give the Windows Mobile team a chance to catch up.

So no third-party apps, no third-party USB devices (like electronic magnifiers or barcode scanners), no unbridled extensibility for now. Instead, think “managed” games. As a developer I’m a bit disappointed for the moment, but optimistic that down the road (a year or two?) the Zune will become a first class multi-touch tablet.

In an interview with the Seattle Times Brian Seitz, Zune’s marketing manager, puts it this way when answering a question about opening up the platform:

“It’s hard to say right now. If you look around the company at other places where things like this are important, Windows Mobile rises to the top. They have devices which are always connected, which make applications like maps really cool and important.

Down the road if there’s a way we can work with Windows Mobile or another group inside the company that’s building an app store and take advantage of that, that’s something we’ll look into.”

By the way, I think Brian’s missing the huge potential of book content on a tablet like device. Odd that he leaves it out and instead suggests that games make the most sense for a sometimes connected device. They probably have numbers that prove my intuition wrong.

In fact, later in the interview Brian seems to knock down my theory that the device always should have been about more than Yet Another Music Player:

“With this release, you can see we’re still really focused on music and video. We’re still hyper-focused on that. Maybe that’s the benefit of being the little guy. We can have that laser-focus.”

Oh well. Let’s hope the little guy, called Microsoft, has some institutional memory loss after a couple more re-orgs and magically realizes the Zune’s potential.

Anyway, if you want to see the Zune HD succeed, it sounds like we need Windows Mobile to get into high gear. Can’t wait for 7.0. The real 7.0. Whether that happens with Windows Mobile 7.0 proper or 7.1 or 8.0 or whatever.