Microsoft Reportedly Developing Own Smartphone
Tablets may not remain the only new hardware category Microsoft is interested in.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is currently testing components for a smartphone. There is no confirmation whether the testing will result in an actual mass-produced product, but - if the information is correct - this may be yet another sign that Microsoft is moving closer to Apple's product strategy.
During the launch of Windows Phone 8, Microsoft neither confirmed nor denied speculation that the company is working on a smartphone. The company stated that it is happy that Nokia, Samsung and HTC expect to be offering Windows Phone 8 devices by the end of the year and declined to comment on questions about a Microsoft phone. According to IDC, Windows Phone currently holds only 2.0 percent of the smartphone market with an estimated 3.6 million devices that shipped in the third quarter - compared to 136.0 million Android phones.
It does not take much insight to conclude that Windows Phone has not had the impact Microsoft is hoping for and there is more concern about its relationship with Nokia. So far, Nokia has not shown the determination and innovation that would be required to turn Windows Phone around. Surface is a demonstration of Microsoft that the company is not going to wait for compelling products from its partners. If Nokia cannot follow through with a breakthrough Windows Phone device, a device designed by Microsoft that is capable of better capturing the strengths of the operating system may turn out to be catastrophic for Nokia, whose entire product strategy is focused on Windows Phone with no backup plan in place.

I think that MS is moving in that same sort of direction, saying that 'this is the way we think hardware should be', and it all works together with the 'full expierence'. But if you purchase a product from someone else, it will integrate just fine with the other parts. Even if you move to a different ecosystem, such as Android or OSX you can still link certain aspects which are software agnostic services, and get by just fine in life. It is not the total experience, but it is still functional.
In this case you will have the WP8 Surface, Surface tablet, and the Nextbox as their desktop PC replacement. All 3 devices share the same basic OS at their heart, and all work together, but they are not a closed group of hardware like apple products tend to be. You can install smartglass on your other branded phone, and have it work with your xBox or nextbox. You can network your macbook and have access to your network files, etc. Where as in apple land you cannot have a PC read files from your apple network, and it can be a pain to sync data between your android phone and iMac, etc.
At any rate, in the end Sony tried to close the system and become exclusive, and failed miserably (at first because they could not get departments to work together, and later because of QC issues). And most other companies who have closed the loop entirely have simply been abandoned and left for dead. MS knows this, and they know that they are not Apple, and could never get away with what apple has done. And with more crap products like we see with the new iMac and iPad mini I doubt it will be long that Apple can remain being Apple as well... but maybe it is just a growing pain they will move past.
I read today that the exclusivity deal is only for 6mo, so you will be able to get one before too long. Also, there will supposedly be a refresh next spring/summer which will bring some better phones that could be available for other markets. Nokia is in no position to supply enough phones to meet demand for all networks. They need a solid success on this one to be able to fund the production needed to do a total launch.
There was something i read about a particular service that was carrier dependent, and only AT&T was ready for it.
Anyway, all i'm concluding is that it won't launch in my country too soon, since we don't have much of this carrier locking thing.
What would you do with that usb 3.0 when these controllers cant even saturate usb 2.0 (eg. 30mb/sec)
I agree with you, with one stipulation. So far they are not pushing out their companions in these sectors. So long as they keep in mind not to do that, they will avoid falling into Apple's forthcoming issue of lacking diversity. We can accept a company being involved in all these areas, but not being alone in these areas. It's just unsavory to us.
I don't have a problem with MSFT dipping into the market, pushing innovation by making their own devices. But Apple is the only one who can make anything that runs iOS or the desktop OS. So, when Apple's own creativity on the hardware end drys up, the company goes with it. MSFT could fail here on the hardware, and all that would mean in the best case is the customer going over to a different hardware maker who is still using the Windows OS. Apple misses on the hardware, there isn't another hardware maker with the software, so the customer moves on to someone else altogether.
So long as they don't lose focus on software, and doesn't try to push folks like Acer, HP, or Nokia out of the market, they could have good "coopetition". This model works a lot better for the long term than does Apple's.
The 900 was a nice phone, and the 920 is even better, but the fact is, they are not in the league of the top Android phones currently on the market (in an overall sense, clearly the 920 has the best camera available at this time). Microsoft is right to do research and testing, and even make their own phone if no one else will make the kind of product that supports their platform they want made.
I firmly believe that if Win 8 comes out on cutting-edge phones, it will garner a much larger market share. People didn't buy Android phones because of Android, they bought them because of the quality of the hardware. The Nokia 920 is a step in the right direction, but isn't quite there. They need "Wow!" phones that make people take notice.
More choices will help, too, such as a Note II style phone for those that want that kind of product.
By contrast, Microsoft will then become the old Apple with hints of Blackberry: aka, a minor player with a focus on businesses, mostly just the ones who are already invested in them and too scared to leave the MS ecosystem...