SEATTLE: Microsoft
Corp, whose mobile version of Windows has lost market share to Apple Inc and Google Inc, will try to drum up excitement for the
software by introducing its own phone, Jefferies & Co said.
The company will probably show the phone at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, said Katherine Egbert, a Jefferies analyst in San Francisco.
The device, described as the “long-rumored ‘Pink phone’ or ‘Zune phone’,” will include high-definition video and a camera, she said.
Microsoft’s share of the smartphone-software market dropped below 10 per cent in the third quarter, according to Gartner Inc, while Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system gained customers. Microsoft will be unveiling a new version of its mobile software at the same February conference, a person familiar with the matter said.
“The one area where they have really lagged is the mobile market,” Egbert, who recommends Microsoft’s stock, said in an interview. “They have to stay relevant to the consumer. They lost a lot of consumer imagination to Apple and Google.”
If the phone isn’t shown at the conference in Barcelona, the company may unveil it at the CTIA show in March, she said. Microsoft has forged partnerships with a few manufacturers to make the phone, Egbert said. The move would echo Google’s introduction of its own phone, the Nexus One, launched in January.