Zune Thoughts: Flextronics Making 2500 Prototype Zunes

"Remember the MS Zune phone we were talking about earlier? Remember how it didn't show up at 3GSM like we said? Word has leaked to the Inquirer that the phone is still a go, and design mavens everywhere will be glad to know that the people who brought you the chocolate Zune are going to do a phone. Iphones are going to become obsolete, and large, square, heat-shielded, and heavily-reinforced pockets will be coming back into style."

The Inquirer does their usual hatchet job with acidic efficiency, but beneath the usual anti-Microsoft tirades, the following rumour emerges: Flextronics, the company that created the current generation of Zunes for Microsoft, is creating 2500 prototype Zunes. Separately, The Inquirer mentions that NVIDIA is going to announce something new at the CTIA convention tomorrow, though there's no apparent connection to the Zune. The good news for us is that prototype Zune = new hardware, so unlike this past holiday season, it looks as though there's a new generation of hardware on the way. But here's the key point: there's no indication that it's going to be a phone, and any speculation to that point is just idle pondering.