PMP hunters: On the lookout for a new 'Zune HD'

It's safe to say that Zune team "senior partner" Brian Seitz's little message was a reiteration of what we already knew, since there was never any announcement that Microsoft was discontinuing it's line of portable media players. But what a way to set the rumor mill churning! That tweet successfully reminded us that we still don't know the most important things about the next Zune: when we'll see it this year, what sort of functions it will have, what it is going to look like, how much storage it will offer, and how much it will cost.

On Friday, a series of promotional shots turned up that show the "Zune HD," suggesting at least that the next generation of the device is going to be metallic instead of plastic, and offer a velocity sensor that will shift the screen to portrait/landscape mode.

This imagery at least addresses the question of what the device will look like, but it raises two potentially more pressing questions than any of those previously mentioned. There is no indication about the interface yet, but the Zune Pad looks to have been either removed or replaced, so is this a touch device? Also, does the "HD" moniker mean this is going to be a real HD device, or is it simply a repeat of the HTC Touch HD, a Windows Mobile device "HD" in name only?

Speaking of phones, what about that pesky "Zune Phone" rumor?

Talk of Zune software on Windows Mobile has been circulating for more than a year, thanks to a Windows Mobile team blog post by Mel Sampat asking for user feedback on how a Zune player and Windows Mobile device could work better together.

Late last year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted in an interview as saying, "What you'll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc."

Shortly after making those remarks, the timeline for Microsoft's Windows Mobile development was unofficially confirmed by Motorola Mobile Devices CEO Sanjay Jha, who said Windows Mobile 6.5 devices would arrive in the second half of 2009. Since then, Microsoft has been pressing forward with Windows Mobile 6.5, and talk of Zune software support in the mobile environment has again been left to percolate on fan sites and blogs.

In the meantime, more bits of information about Zune HD are trickling out to keep us talking, such as the placeholding Web site that Microsoft may not have really posted...and we still have more than half the calendar year before us to wait for a new Windows Mobile OS and a new MP3 player from Microsoft.