Today Robbie Bach president of the Entertainment and Devices division for Microsoft stated that there will be no ZunePhone stating “We don't make phones ourselves. We don't have any plans to make phones ourselves.�

He did say that the Zune will eventually have a touch screen “Take the device independent for a second and just assume that over time where there's a screen, touch will be part of it. It's not going to matter what the product line is. You're going to see it be a cornerstone of the work we do.� So it seems that touch will become standard on Zunes when this happens.

Paraphrased from ACE's post on ZuneBoards

Ever wanted to hear some good news about Zune so bad you'd post basicly anything? Sure, I know that feeling. So without delay, here is a one liner that give no source, no links, nothing more than speculation...

Apparently Microsoft France’s Francois Ruault stated in a French newspaper that Microsoft was planning to release the Zune 3.0 in both the U.S. and Europe in late 2009.

You could head over to Wordplop, but there is not much more to read than this one liner.  Personally, I'd hope and expect to see a "Zune 3" before 2009.

CrunchGear has posted some photo mockups of what they say the "rumored" Zune Phone should/could be. I say hogwash. I know that these aren't real, anyone can guess that. If they were, they wouldn't be floating around so early. What do I mean by early? Come on, we still have issues with Zune 2 somewhat. I know that R&D teams have to plan and think ahead, but, like I said the other day... I don't expect a Zune Phone this year. It's a good traffic generator for sites to buzz this type rumor stuff, but it sometimes leads to fabrication of a story too.

I like these mockups, whoever did them should show them to Microsoft.