Are Microsoft also building their own Phone?

Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund:

Separately, our industry sources tell us that Microsoft may be working with a contract manufacturer to develop their own handset for Windows Phone 8. 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.

I wouldn’t be either. Seems to make perfect sense that at some point, Microsoft would look to control their phone hardware as well similar to Google and their mad Nexus experiment. Nokia’s not in great shape so relying on them might have been a mistake and might also be a further incentive to:

• Acquire a phone partner and take over the operation
• Build the components in-house

My money is on acquisition and I wouldn’t be surprised if either RIM or Nokia becomes a part of Microsoft in the next calendar year. My money would actually be on RIM specifically because of the enterprise synergies that would bring. Either way, this will be fun to watch. What are your thoughts? Do you think Microsoft will make their own phone hardware? Should they?]]>