The Xbox Phone?

Just writing down a prediction here so I can be proven completely wrong in a few months’ time.

When Windows Phone 7 was first announced, my first thought was “Windows Phone? What are they calling it that for?”. Well known though the brand undoubtedly is, it’s not exactly untainted, particularly when it comes to Windows Mobile.

However, reading Mary Jo Foley’s recent article “Is Microsoft Zune about to be Kinned?” and seeing the introduction of the new Xperia Play “PlayStation phone” got me to thinking, and what I think is this:

• “Zune” will become “Xbox Entertainment”. The Zune brand doesn’t really exist outside the USA, and even there I believe it doesn’t have great traction. Xbox, on the other hand, has a good reputation everywhere.
• The Xbox itself is going to expand from a primarily gaming platform to a complete entertainment hub.
• The next major release of Windows Phone will also introduce an Xbox Phone (xPhone?). The Windows Phone brand will be aimed more at business users, whereas the Xbox Phone brand will be aimed at consumers and will build on Xbox Live and the Kinect integration already demonstrated, possibly with a slide-out controller as well.

So what do you think? Is this likely? Would it work? Will Apple, Google and Sony Ericsson be too far ahead in 6 months time anyway? Answers on a postcard please (or in the comments if you must …)