Microsoft Says They Won’t Build Their Own Phones

Paul McDougal, reporting for Information Week:

A Microsoft executive said the company has no plans to manufacture its own company-branded smartphones, denying reports to the contrary that emerged after Redmond last week roiled the PC hardware industry by unveiling its own tablet computer.

Asked in an interview if Microsoft planned to apply that strategy to the smartphone market, Greg Sullivan, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone, said, “No, we do not.”

Mary-Jo Foley, interviewing Microsoft’s Roz Ho two years ago:

Ho — the former head of Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, who became the leader of PMX (Premium Mobile Services) in 2007 — wanted to make sure I knew that Kin isn’t a Microsoft phone. Neither of the models announced today are going to be Microsoft-branded. The Kins are Sharp phones, she said, and Sharp is just one of a number of Microsoft OEM partners on the mobile front.

“This (Kin) is another Windows Phone,” Ho said.

I asked her whether other OEMs had been considered to produce the Kin phones and was told “Microsoft talks to a a lot of partners” (which I am taking as a polite “no”).

Or as Darth put it, “Deja vu all over again.”

★ Monday, 25 June 2012