Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software company, is poised to break into the competitive mobile phone market with the largest U.S wireless carrier—Verizon Wireless.
Microsoft and Verizon plan to launch two phones, in mid-2010, targeting the teenage demographic, according to reports quoting unnamed sources that are knowledgeable about the companies’ plans. Verizon Wireless is a joint-venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and U.K.-based Vodafone Plc.
Last month, the company introduced its Windows Phone 7 for next-generation mobile devices.
The phones are intended to cater to heavy users of social network sites and will provide tools that will facilitate keyboards for easy text messaging. The two sources providing the confidential plans have remained unidentified. It seems the phones could be produced by Sharp Corp. and be branded Microsoft and Verizon Wireless. The devices could be exclusive to Verizon; however, there could still be room to market them across various carriers.
Historically, Microsoft has been a software provider in the wireless industry to different handset makers, however it has been losing ground with the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android platform.
There is conflicting feedback from the companies involved—both have declined to comment about the alleged plans by Microsoft and Verizon Wireless, who have supposedly coded their phone initiative “Project Pink.” This does not imply that it will be the actual name of the marketing campaign or product.
According to Bloomberg, Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless, declined to comment, as did Jay Cudal, a spokesman for Microsoft. Chris Loncto, a spokesman for Osaka, Japan-based Sharp, also declined to comment.
Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s president of entertainment and devices division said in a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) briefing in January, “Our experience has been very skewed toward business users, and [Windows Mobile] ... is not as modern as it needs to be. I'll just be as straightforward as that.”
“We are going to have some new things that [we] will talk about at Mobile World Congress,” Bach added at the time. “I’m certainly confident people are going to see it as something ... that feels, looks, acts, and performs completely different,” he added.
Microsoft’s Windows fell to a 7.9 percent share of the worldwide smartphone software market in the fourth quarter 2009, from 12.5 percent a year earlier, while the iPhone and Android posted gains, according to ABI Research.
Microsoft and Verizon plan to launch two phones, in mid-2010, targeting the teenage demographic, according to reports quoting unnamed sources that are knowledgeable about the companies’ plans. Verizon Wireless is a joint-venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and U.K.-based Vodafone Plc.
Last month, the company introduced its Windows Phone 7 for next-generation mobile devices.
The phones are intended to cater to heavy users of social network sites and will provide tools that will facilitate keyboards for easy text messaging. The two sources providing the confidential plans have remained unidentified. It seems the phones could be produced by Sharp Corp. and be branded Microsoft and Verizon Wireless. The devices could be exclusive to Verizon; however, there could still be room to market them across various carriers.
Historically, Microsoft has been a software provider in the wireless industry to different handset makers, however it has been losing ground with the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android platform.
There is conflicting feedback from the companies involved—both have declined to comment about the alleged plans by Microsoft and Verizon Wireless, who have supposedly coded their phone initiative “Project Pink.” This does not imply that it will be the actual name of the marketing campaign or product.
According to Bloomberg, Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless, declined to comment, as did Jay Cudal, a spokesman for Microsoft. Chris Loncto, a spokesman for Osaka, Japan-based Sharp, also declined to comment.
Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s president of entertainment and devices division said in a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) briefing in January, “Our experience has been very skewed toward business users, and [Windows Mobile] ... is not as modern as it needs to be. I'll just be as straightforward as that.”
“We are going to have some new things that [we] will talk about at Mobile World Congress,” Bach added at the time. “I’m certainly confident people are going to see it as something ... that feels, looks, acts, and performs completely different,” he added.
Microsoft’s Windows fell to a 7.9 percent share of the worldwide smartphone software market in the fourth quarter 2009, from 12.5 percent a year earlier, while the iPhone and Android posted gains, according to ABI Research.
