Verizon to Offer Microsoft Phones

Verizon to Offer Microsoft Phones,

There will be two new joiners to the smart phone craze, at least according sources who would rather not be named. And Verizon will be the one that will offer them.

According to an article on Business Week, Verizon Wireless will be offering to phones from Microsoft. The phones will reportedly be available by May or June, and is targeted towards teenagers.

Thus far, Microsoft has been content with being a software provider, having its mobile Windows software on phones offered by other manufacturers. This time around, Microsoft will be doing a Google; the latter is now selling its own phone, the Nexus One. What such a move will do to Microsoft’s relationship with other manufacturers and service providers remains to be seen. The source of Business Week, however, mentioned that “Microsoft will continue to work closely with handset companies that make Windows phones and the mobile carriers that sell them.”Verizon to Offer Microsoft Phones, Its presumed target audience belies the features that the phones

are expected to have. Among the features that can be expected from the phones is easy access to social networking sites and keyboards for text messaging, things that teenagers will most definitely want in a phone. The phones will reportedly be manufactured by Sharp Corp. and will feature both the Microsoft and Verizon Wireless brands.

One of the sources also revealed that the phones are “intended to address a similar audience as Motorola Inc.’s Cliq or T-Mobile USA Inc.’s Sidekick.” Microsoft had acquired Danger Inc., maker of the software for Sidekick, in 2008. The Cliq, on the other hand, is known for a software called Motoblur, “which serves up Twitter messages, pictures and contacts to the phone’s home screen.”