Windows Phone 7 Support Gets Mac SupportWindows Phone 7 Support Gets Mac Support

One of the big components of Windows Phone 7 is the Zune music player on the device. Anyone that has ever seen a Zune knows the new user interface for the whole phone is based on the Zune interface. Zune MP3 players are for PCs only, but not so with Windows Phone 7. Mac users will be able to sync with their iTunes library if they want.Microsoft isn't the first company to do this. Last year the Pre launched with Palm's new WebOS platform and you could dock it and iTunes would think it was an iPod and sync right up. This quickly evolved into a cat and mouse game between Palm and Apple where Apple would tweak iTunes to block the Pre and Palm would tweak the Pre to play nice with the latest version of iTunes.

Palm eventually filed a complaint with the USB Implementers Forum alleging that Apple wasn't playing fair. To Palm's surprise, the Forum sided with Apple, saying Palm was violating the rules by having the Pre masquerade an iPod.

The same fate won't befall Microsoft though. They are taking a totally different approach. According to MacVideo, Microsoft will be making a tool that Mac users can install. That application will connect to your Windows Phone and sync directly with your iTunes library.

There aren't a lot of details yet on what exactly will be supported though. You should assume playlist support is there. Obviously DRM locked files won't work, and it is doubtful .AAC files will work as WP7 doesn't support that. MP3 files though are safe, which is just one more reason to use a file standard that can be used across nearly unlimited devices and platforms.

Hopefully it will have podcasting support at the initial launch. It won't have Zune Pass support though as that requires its own music library, something it won't have. By the time it had that, MS could release a full desktop Zune player for the Mac. Zune Pass is a service that for $14.95 per month, you can download virtually anything from the Zune music library online and listen to it as long as you continue to pay for the monthly service. With that you can convert 10 songs to unprotected MP3 files and keep forever. Since most MP3 files cost 99¢ this is like getting unlimited music for just $5.

It is clear Microsoft is putting more effort into Windows Phone than it did Windows Mobile. The latter never had support from Microsoft for use on the Mac and Windows Media Player on the devices has been virtually unchanged for the last six or seven years.

Hopefully there will be more details forthcoming on the Mac sync tool in the coming weeks. If Windows Phone 7 is a moderate success, Microsoft may even put forth the effort to write a full blown Zune desktop player for the Mac.