Microsoft-Built Smartphone Could Irritate Hardware Partners, Harm Nokia

[wraggster]

Rumors have circulated for weeks that Microsoft intends to release a smartphone of its own design and manufacture (http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/microsoft-smartphone-harm-nokia-irritate-google/), embracing the strategy that drove Apple's iPhone to such enormous success over the past few years. While releasing a branded smartphone offers several potential benefits—look at the revenue and brand recognition Apple's earned as a result of the iPhone—such a strategy also carries significant risks for Microsoft. First, it could alienate smartphone partners such as Nokia, which would find itself competing against a high-end device backed by Microsoft's sizable marketing dollars. (Given the Finnish phone-maker's already perilous situation, that could prove ruinous.) But a branded smartphone could also convince hardware manufacturers that Microsoft really is 'all in' on building its own devices, which could lead to all sorts of drama."

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/05/2256239/microsoft-built-smartphone-could-irritate-hardware-partners-harm-nokia