Windows Phone 8 start screen
A Microsoft executive has shot down rumours that the company plans to build its own smartphones, following the introduction of the Surface tablet and Windows Phone 8 last week.
When asked in an interview by InformationWeek, Greg Sullivan, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone, said the company has no plans to apply the Surface tablet strategy to the smartphone market.
“We have a strong ecosystem of partners that we are very satisfied with,” said Sullivan, paying reference to Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Huawei, who are all on board to manufacture Windows Phone 8 devices.
The rumours began when investment analyst and managing director of Nomura Securities Rick Sherlund implied that Microsoft’s deal with a contract manufacturer to produce Windows Phone 8 handsets indicated that the company could be looking to manufacture its own smartphone.
Now that Sullivan has quashed this rumour, a new one shoots up to take its place, this time concerning a possible buy-out of Nokia, a phone manufacturer in which Microsoft has already invested billions to help with Windows Phone transition costs.
