Seems I might have triggered quite the debate…
I attended the TechDays London event yesterday, about the Cloud covering Windows Phone 7, Windows Azure, IE9 and Windows 7. This event kicked off with a Keynote speech by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, I’ve always wanted to see Steve Ballmer Keynote in person, and this was my chance, plus the sessions were relevent to me and I was able to attend so booked my tickets and travelled the 3+ hours to London’s International Conference Centre for the Event!
The Keynote was about the Developer Opportunity and was very motivational and focused in-part on Windows Phone 7 where Microsoft’s dedication to this platform was being made clear - as a long-time “unofficial” evangelist for Windows Phone 7, as every event I go to here in the North East of England I’m talking about it to people, and even have done some short presentations about it.
Windows Phone 7 brings with it the launch of the Zune services for purchasing music and videos on the device this means the UK finally gets the service I’ve known about for years. I own the Zune 80 and the Zune HD and they both are great devices - but especially the latter, people have asked my on occasion if the Zune HD is coming to the UK, and there was no official answer.
However during the Q&A for the Keynote there were a few questions and as I had again been talking about the Zune HD I’d though I’d ask the question if the Zune hardware will ever come to the UK, which the answer to which was No, which did confirm what I suspected and I myself would be more that satisfied with the Zune services being supported on Windows Phone 7.
This question has become the topic for some debate on the Internet it seems, guess everyone else wanted to know the answer to this too! With Neowin.net article “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirms no Zune HD for Europe” , EricTric Article “No Zune HD For Europe, Says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer” and Zunited.net article “Steve Ballmer Says No Zune HD for the UK” all featuring discussions about this topic, I never thought it would be such a hot topic and I myself think the Zune as a service is quite compelling - it is merely this part which has been missing in the UK, until the Windows Phone 7 launch.
Hopefully I haven’t caused too much trouble, and only asked to get this question answered for all those who’ve asked my - they are too are interested in the phone and the Zune service to them will be a bonus, if I didn’t have a Zune I’d buy the phones anyway - the fact I’m a Windows Phone 7 developer means I’d get one anyway but Zune on Windows Phone 7 is the future portable focus of the platform - and that is not a bad thing!
