Tech: Microsoft Tests Smartphone With Asia Suppliers
TAIPEI—Microsoft house. is functioning with element suppliers in Asia to check its own smartphone style, folks at home with the case aforesaid, suggesting the computer-software large is more and more adopting a variation of a business model favored by rival Apple INC., that styles computers and phones along side the computer code that powers them.
Officials at some of Microsoft's parts suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Redmond, Wash.-based company is testing a smartphone design but isn't sure if a product will go into mass production.
One person said that the screen of Microsoft's smartphone currently being tested measures between four and five inches. Apple's newest smartphone, the iPhone 5, has a four-inch screen, while Samsung's Galaxy S III phone has a 4.8-inch screen.
Speculation has swirled for months that Microsoft would make its own smartphone, after Microsoft unveiled in June its first homegrown computing device, the Surface tablet. The Surface went on sale last week, and it remains controversial among longtime Microsoft allies, some of whom believe the company is unfairly competing with their personal-computer models running Microsoft's Windows software.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer declined to comment on whether Microsoft would make its own smartphone.
"We're quite happy this holiday [season] going to market hard with Nokia, Samsung and HTC," said Mr. Ballmer, referring to companies making smartphones powered by Microsoft software. "Whether we had a plan to do something different or we didn't have a plan I wouldn't comment in any dimension."
A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.
If Microsoft pushes ahead with its mobile phone, it would underscore how far Microsoft has moved away from its long-standing practice of making software and leaving decisions about design, features and marketing of the computing hardware to partners such as Hewlett-Packard Co. or Samsung Electronics Co.
In addition to the Surface, Microsoft produces the Xbox videogame consoles and it increasingly has dictated how Windows-powered PCs and smartphones made by its partners look, perform and are pitched to consumers.
As it does so, Microsoft pulls from a modified playbook of Apple—whose hardware-plus-software approach Microsoft officials long have scorned. Google Inc., whose Android smartphone software is the market-share leader, owns cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. even as outside companies such as Samsung also power their smartphones with Android.
Smartphones running Microsoft's two-year-old Windows Phone operating software for cellphones haven't sold well, and Microsoft may want to leave itself an option to test whether its own phone would spur sales.
Stephen Elop, the chief executive of Nokia Corp., two weeks ago on a conference call said he would welcome a Microsoft-made phone because he believed it would be a "stimulant" to sales for all companies making Windows Phone devices. In the conference call with analysts, Mr. Elop said he wasn't informed about Microsoft's plans.
The market for smartphones is rapidly expanding with demand particularly strong in China and other emerging markets. Research firm IDC expects global smartphone shipments to grow 38.8% this year to 686 million units.
In 2010, Microsoft launched and then quickly killed a line of youth-oriented smartphones called the Kin. The phones carried Microsoft's brand, but were manufactured by Japanese electronics company Sharp Corp.
News about Microsoft working on its own smartphone was reported earlier by several technology blogs.
Officials at some of Microsoft's parts suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Redmond, Wash.-based company is testing a smartphone design but isn't sure if a product will go into mass production.
One person said that the screen of Microsoft's smartphone currently being tested measures between four and five inches. Apple's newest smartphone, the iPhone 5, has a four-inch screen, while Samsung's Galaxy S III phone has a 4.8-inch screen.
Speculation has swirled for months that Microsoft would make its own smartphone, after Microsoft unveiled in June its first homegrown computing device, the Surface tablet. The Surface went on sale last week, and it remains controversial among longtime Microsoft allies, some of whom believe the company is unfairly competing with their personal-computer models running Microsoft's Windows software.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer declined to comment on whether Microsoft would make its own smartphone.
"We're quite happy this holiday [season] going to market hard with Nokia, Samsung and HTC," said Mr. Ballmer, referring to companies making smartphones powered by Microsoft software. "Whether we had a plan to do something different or we didn't have a plan I wouldn't comment in any dimension."
A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.
If Microsoft pushes ahead with its mobile phone, it would underscore how far Microsoft has moved away from its long-standing practice of making software and leaving decisions about design, features and marketing of the computing hardware to partners such as Hewlett-Packard Co. or Samsung Electronics Co.
In addition to the Surface, Microsoft produces the Xbox videogame consoles and it increasingly has dictated how Windows-powered PCs and smartphones made by its partners look, perform and are pitched to consumers.
As it does so, Microsoft pulls from a modified playbook of Apple—whose hardware-plus-software approach Microsoft officials long have scorned. Google Inc., whose Android smartphone software is the market-share leader, owns cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. even as outside companies such as Samsung also power their smartphones with Android.
Smartphones running Microsoft's two-year-old Windows Phone operating software for cellphones haven't sold well, and Microsoft may want to leave itself an option to test whether its own phone would spur sales.
Stephen Elop, the chief executive of Nokia Corp., two weeks ago on a conference call said he would welcome a Microsoft-made phone because he believed it would be a "stimulant" to sales for all companies making Windows Phone devices. In the conference call with analysts, Mr. Elop said he wasn't informed about Microsoft's plans.
The market for smartphones is rapidly expanding with demand particularly strong in China and other emerging markets. Research firm IDC expects global smartphone shipments to grow 38.8% this year to 686 million units.
In 2010, Microsoft launched and then quickly killed a line of youth-oriented smartphones called the Kin. The phones carried Microsoft's brand, but were manufactured by Japanese electronics company Sharp Corp.
News about Microsoft working on its own smartphone was reported earlier by several technology blogs.
No comments:
Post a Comment