Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund:
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.I wouldn’t be either. Seems to make perfect sense that at some point, Microsoft would look to control their phone hardware as well similar to Google and their mad Nexus experiment. Nokia’s not in great shape so relying on them might have been a mistake and might also be a further incentive to:
- Acquire a phone partner and take over the operation
- Build the components in-house
I think Microsoft will acquire Nokia. This seems more than logical in particular how they advertise the Nokia lumia phones, and now they are using nokia’s mapping solution. I think a takeover is more than inevitable.
Microsoft just needs to take the plunge and buy Nokia. It is the right thing to do all around. No one else is really making money off Windows Phone right now, so it is not like the OEMs should really get upset. Most of them are also producing Android phones anyway, except Nokia.