Microsoft Expects Partners To Flood The Market With 30 New Phones By Year End
There is a benefit to not manufacturing your own hardware. Once Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) releases its latest operating system on Oct. 6, it expects 15 handset manufacturers to launch an impressive 30 smartphones by year end.
Companies, like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Palm (NSDQ: PALM), which build everything from the software to the hardware would never be able to accomplish such a feat. Some of Microsoft’s handset partners include: HTC, Acer, Samsung, LG (SEO: 066570) Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC), Toshiba, and HP. In addition, Microsoft has a nice list of carrier partners lined up to sell the new phones, including AT&T (NYSE: T), Sprint (NYSE: S), Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) and Telus.
The impressive roadmap was reported by DigiTimes, which said Benjamin Tan, senior director, of Mobile Team Unit at Microsoft China, revealed the numbers to a group of reporters in China recently.
"impressive feat" may be a misnomer….I am not sure if any company can match Microsoft in the abuse on a poorly designed OS and having high profile customers like Motorola and Palm drop off like flies.
Moving ahead with a flawed model is hardly something to be proud of. Even a dead body shows forward motion.
Will WinMo 7 be so amazing and the hardware so incredible that people will buy them in droves? I seriously doubt that.
Besides why would you want more than 1 or 2 handsets? I fail to understand the logic of more models is better.