Microsoft denies rumors of a Zune phone, but the idea has some merit. Is this just Verizon's ploy to get Apple to play ball?

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April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile-phone company, has held talks with Microsoft Corp. about offering a handset that may include the Zune music-player software, a person familiar with the matter said.

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Is it really a surprise that, right after the rumors of AT&T and Verizon pairing off start hitting the news (again), suddenly Microsoft enters the picture? Out of the blue comes news of "Pink" a supposed Microsoft Zune-phone to be sold by Verizon. This doesn't seem like a mere coincidence.

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Microsoft and Verizon might be conspiring to build an iPhone challenger. The two companies make an inauspicious team: sales of Microsoft's Zune media player, the likely basis for the new device, have been in freefall for months. Verizon's last big bet, the Blackberry Storm, wasn't that great . But together, the two companies might be able to achieve some kind of alchemy that has proven ...

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Microsoft today tried to partly downplay talk of it helping to make an iPhone rival for Verizon by issuing a statement on the subject. The company's John Starkweather maintains that Microsoft is "not going into the phone hardware business" and that it isn't building a "Zune-specific" device. Instead, he reiterates that Microsoft is planning to work more closely with phone makers to get them ...

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Yesterday the internet was buzzing with news of a pending iPhone rival coming on the Verizon network from Microsoft. It started because of a story in the Wall Street Journal that quoted people “familiar with the matter” as saying that Microsoft is in talks to launch a “touch-screen multimedia cellphone on Verizon early next year”. This [...]

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There have been rumors in the past that a Zune phone was coming and that Microsoft was going to start making their own mobile phones to compete with Apple and the iPhone. We here always knew that was not going to happen and John Starkweather from Microsoft just gave us...

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The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to launch a touchscreen smartphone in an effort to compete with Apple's iPhone early next year, according to anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

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In the wake of reports about a new, Microsoft-manufactured phone or device for Verizon Wireless dubbed the "Pink", Microsoft made clear its business regarding mobile devices. Spokesperson John Starkweather said, "Microsoft is not going into the phone hardware business ... (follow link to read)

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NEW YORK - Verizon Wireless has held talks with Microsoft Corp. about offering a phone that may include Microsoft's Zune music-player software, a person familiar with the matter said.

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