With the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface tablet, this is the first piece of hardware in a while that Microsoft will be making themselves, as opposed to turning to their OEM partners. This led many to speculate that may Microsoft could be thinking of doing the same with their Windows Phone 8 handsets, much like how Apple designs and builds their own products. Unfortunately if you were blown away by the design and features of the Surface tablet and wouldn’t mind seeing what Microsoft could accomplish if they made their own phones, you’ll be in for a disappointment. The company has stated explicitly in an interview with Information Week that they are not building a phone of their own, and that they are happy with the work done by their OEMs, i.e. HTC, Nokia, Samsung, etc.
However this is contrary to what Nomura analyst, Rick Sherlund said in a note to their clients. He claimed that Microsoft had a deal with contract manufacturers to build Windows Phone 8 handsets. “It is unclear to us whether this would be a reference platform or whether this may be a go-to-market Microsoft-branded handset […] We would not be surprised if Microsoft were to decide to bring their own handset to market next year given that Microsoft has decided to bring to market their own Windows 8 Surface tablet/PC products.” Either way since Microsoft has denied the rumors for now, we guess we will take their word for it, but how do you guys feel about a Microsoft-made Windows Phone device anyway?
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft and Windows Phone 8.