Given all the twists and turns in the story of Microsoft’s Zune music devices, a series of posts about a mysterious device from a recent Nokia/T-Mobile news conference piqued our interest this morning.
It was a three-inch device, without buttons, described by My Nokia Blog as a “pocket tablet” without a cellular connection, just Wi-Fi.
Over the holiday weekend, the gadget generated lots of speculation. Could this be a new Zune player? The first device to run the “Tango” update to Windows Phone 7? A plan by Microsoft and Nokia to mount a stronger challenge to Apple and Google?
Guessed GottaBeMobile: “Omitting the cellular radio requirement and merging the smartphone and PMP devices under one OS would help to save development cost, attract developers, grow the apps ecosystem, and help avoid consumer frustration. Apple’s done it with iOS on the iPhone and iPod Touch and Google’s done it with Android – we suspect a Microsoft-Nokia partnership may be exploring this possibility.”
Except not. As confirmed by The Verge, it’s just a name badge. Albeit a very cool one.
The original source of the rumor, the site BooredAtWork, has updated its post to acknowledge the mistake.
For the record, Microsoft is no longer making its Zune HD devices, but the Zune music service remains available on PCs, Xbox 360s and Windows Phone.
