According to Digitimes, Foxconn International Holdings, a Foxconn Electronics (the company responsible for mass producing the iPhone and iPad) subsidiary is rumoured to have been contracted by Microsoft to mass produce the Windows Phone 8-powered Surface smartphone. The handset is expected to debut in the middle of 2013.
This new report lines up with a previous report from IT Home, a Chinese site, with sources claiming Foxconn has already started mass production of the rumoured Surface phone.
Earlier during the month, reports claimed that the Redmond firm was testing the Surface smartphone with Asian suppliers, suggesting that the software giant is on the hunt for a manufacturing partner.
According to reports, the device will sport a display measuring between four to five inches. If these reports are genuine, it’s a dead cert that the handset carrying the Microsoft brand will run Windows Phone 8.
These reports come after Microsoft deciding to get into the hardware game and release the Surface tablet. If the big M decided to make its own tablet, then why not a smartphone?
According to the same report from Digitimes, Amazon has also contracted Foxconn to mass produce its first smartphone.
Currently, Amazon has focused on making the dirt cheap 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet. However, rumours have circulated throughout the year claiming that it’s next big thing will be a smartphone. After Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, said that the online retail giant was cooking up new devices for 2013, most speculate that we will soon see an Amazon smartphone.
It looks like two huge companies are getting into the smartphone market. Windows 8 developer Microsoft is rumoured to launch its own smartphone running Windows Phone 8 and online retail giant Amazon is expected to launch an Android-powered smartphone.
Do you think Amazon will be launching their own smartphone? Would you be interested in Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8-powered handset? Share your thoughts through a comment on our Facebook page.
it would be wonderful to have a phone from microsoft with its own windows 8.
there will be the real fun with the genuine producers of genuine creations in technology