This is Microsoft’s “plan B” for the smartphone market

Oct 3, 2012 23:01 GMT  ·  By

Windows Phone 8 is expected to become available in late October on devices coming from various handset vendors around the world, yet it won’t be launched on Microsoft hardware as well, it seems.

Although rumors on a possible launch of a Surface handset have emerged ever since the company unveiled its own Windows 8-powered tablet PC, the company has been keen on denying such suppositions.

If such a handset would indeed exist, we would expect for Microsoft to be tight-lipped on it, and the fact that Nokia is unaware of its existence confirms it.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Microsoft isn’t considering the launch of its own Windows Phone 8-powered device, and new reports suggest that it is actually planning such a move.

According to The Verge, no Surface phone will come from Microsoft this year, yet things might change in 2013.

Sources familiar with the company’s plans say that the launch of such a handset is Microsoft’s “Plan B” for the mobile market, even if it won’t officially confirm it at the moment.

As mentioned in our previous reports, the release of a Surface phone wouldn’t come too much as a surprise from the Redmond-based company.

After all, they have already had such devices available for purchase, in the form of KIN, even if they registered little to no success with them.

For what it’s worth, the smartphone market has changed a lot since KIN’s landing in 2010, and is bound to change even more before the end of this year, specifically due to the release of Windows Phone 8 devices.

Should Microsoft bring its own hardware to shelves, it would certainly help the platform gain some more market share, which it desperately needs, that’s for sure.

What exactly a Surface phone would have to offer, it remains to be seen. Today, we can presume that Microsoft will pack it not only with high-end hardware, but also with a nice range of services that would make users fall in love with the Windows Phone platform once again.