Microsoft Reportedly Working On Its Own Smartphone

[wraggster]

According to a (paywalled (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204712904578093680117917590.html)) report in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is experimenting with its own smartphone design (http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/240012763/report-microsoft-testing-smartphone-prototype-with-component-suppliers.htm). "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." The article continues:"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 or Samsung Electronics. ... As it does so, Microsoft pulls from a modified playbook of Apple—whose hardware-plus-software approach Microsoft officials long have scorned. ... 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."

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/02/2152211/microsoft-reportedly-working-on-its-own-smartphone