By Stephen Schenck

This week’s reveal of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Surface tablets marked a renewed interest from the company in mobile device hardware. While it’s now clear that Microsoft will be taking a leading role in that hardware ecosystem, could the news of these devices cause ripples that spread over to Windows Phone 8, signaling a similar interest in Microsoft-branded hardware? One analyst thinks so, citing reports from industry sources.

After the embarrassment that was Microsoft Kin, we understand the company’s hesitation to dive right back in to the mobile hardware game. Instead, it’s been acting as a conductor of sorts for the Windows Phone 7 devices we’ve seen emerge, directing the evolution of the platform’s hardware while still keeping an arm’s length.

A lot of talk about the move to a new kernel in WP8 has focused on what it will mean for integration with Windows 8, and offering its own WP8 hardware would seem like a great way for Microsoft to push the whole Windows 8 “package”, where users spend their entire online lives within the company’s family of products.

As to whether or not Microsoft would actually come out with its own smartphone, that’s a pretty tough call to make without some hard evidence supporting it, but we’ll concede that it no longer seems like the certain impossibility that it may have just one year ago.

Source: Business Insider
Via: BGR