Microsoft Announces its Windows 8 Surface Tablet; Plans to Step into Smartphone Market

If you don’t live under the rock then you already know that earlier this week Microsoft announced its own made Windows 8 tablet named as Surface. Now, its OEM partners are pretty upset about that because they have been preparing their own Windows 8 tablets and suddenly Microsoft decided to enter the tablet business. Now, it seems like Microsoft also has plans to enter the smartphone business as well. According to an analyst named as Rick Sherlund, the sources at supply chain are suggesting that Microsoft is planning on developing its own Windows Phone 8 handsets as well.

Here is what Sherlund said:

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.

After this quote, we can easily calculate that Microsoft is already testing the device. As you might remember that Microsoft showed a dual core chip that will be able to power Windows Phone 8 devices earlier this year at a mobile event. We have heard that it can be just a reference device, but I don’t think that Microsoft will take so much external resources to develop a mere reference device.

Impressive Surface Tablets

Now we definitely think that Microsoft is capable of pulling off that gig as well. Because we have already seen that how impressive its Surface tablets were and similarly smartphone will also be well built and designed. But I don’t think Microsoft’s OEM partners will really appreciate that step, as they are already upset about company’s entry in the tablet business. It will create a similar situation with Android, as Google has acquired Motorola recently, and they will be creating their own hardware as well.

Nokia Will Suffer

Now, if Microsoft enters the smartphone market, it will also have a great impact on Nokia. We already know that Nokia has been working very closely with Microsoft in the past year. And Nokia’s financials are pretty bad right now and they might collapse sooner than later. So, there is also a chance that Microsoft might acquire Nokia after its bankruptcy and that’s how they can enter the business with some muscle power.