Ballmer "to unveil Zune Phone at CES"

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 10 Dec 2008 at 18:17

Steve Ballmer will launch an iPhone rival at next month's Consumer Electronics Show, according to an analyst.

The company has long been rumoured to be working on a "Zune Phone" based on its music player.

Trip Chowdhry, of Global Equities Research, claims the company is set to launch a device that incorporates Zune features into hardware similar to Danger Sidekick phones. If true, this means the device will have a full hardware keyboard, unlike the iPhone's oft-criticised onscreen keyboard.

The analyst claims the Microsoft device will also include an iPhone-like accelerometer.

Steve Ballmer dismissed the concept of a Zune phone at a CEO conference last year.

However, with Microsoft having already announced that the Windows 7 beta will be arriving on 14 January, the company clearly needs a big consumer announcement for Ballmer's keynote speech on 7 January.

Whether a Zune Phone would even be sold in the UK is questionable. The music player is yet to arrive on these shores, more than two years after its US launch.