Microsoft to make own phone?

Microsoft could be mulling the prospect of producing its own brand phone, so the latest MS related rumour has it.

According to IBN Live, this piece of info comes from an analyst note written yesterday by Rick Sherlund of Nomura. He wrote: “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.”

If the latter, then Nokia, Microsoft’s main Windows Phone partner when it comes to hardware thus far, will doubtless be pretty miffed. Particularly seeing as the announcement yesterday of Windows Phone 8 may further curtail Lumia sales until the end of the year.

As folks may not want to splash out now on a phone which won’t be able to run Windows Phone 8 in less than six months time (current handsets will be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8, but won’t have the hardware nouse for full WP8).

Nokia’s Lumia range hasn’t been performing blazingly, anyway, and perhaps the move is something to do with Microsoft preparing to take matters into its own hands with the mobile OS.

The news comes just after Microsoft announced its surface Tablet this week – so if the company can push out a tablet, why not a smartphone too?

If there is a Microsoft Windows Phone handset in the pipeline, though, we certainly won’t see it this year… but perhaps next year. We’ll keep you updated if we hear anything else.