The Flash-based Zune is smaller than the smallest major smart phone (the BlackBerry Pearl). It has just three controls on the front. A small Back button, an equally small Play/Pause button and a very large Zune pad, which is a touchpad that works also as a physical button. These buttons control the Zune user interface, which is a lot like the Windows Media Center UI.
Zune's minimalist controls are plenty for a phone, especially one augmented by voice commands.
Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates is constantly talking about how voice command is the future of computing. He's been saying this for years. I'd like to see him shut up about it and actually ship something.
A primarily voice-based Zune would launch the Zune phone into an alternative future, an alternative to the third-generation UI future envisioned by Apple.
Such a Zune phone would be an ideal alternative to the iPhone-inspired universe of giant, clumsy phones with poor battery life. Because of its small screen and simplicity, such a phone should get two or three days of use -- much better than the iPhone's.
Unfortunately, this vision of the Zune phone -- a sleek, simple, functional phone -- is one you'll never see from Microsoft, because the company just doesn't do sleek, simple and functional.
The most likely Zune phone, or "Pink" or "Danger-like" phone-centric CES announcement will be more of what Microsoft has been giving us for years: a confusing muddle of bloated initiatives nobody wants.
Too bad. I'd love a real Zune phone.
Mike Elgan writes about technology and global tech culture. Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com , follow him on Twitter or his blog, The Raw Feed.