T-Mobile International AG and Microsoft Corp. sought to clarify media reports concerning possible delays of the release of a T-Mobile phone using Microsoft software in Europe, but T-Mobile wouldn’t give a specific release date.
Media reports surfaced last week that T-Mobile had delayed the release of a phone using Microsoft’s Smartphone operating system, scheduled for sale in June. However, a T-Mobile spokesman said the carrier had never set a definite date, only that it would begin selling the phone sometime this summer. Spokesman Philipp Schindera said there are software problems with the phone, and that T-Mobile, manufacturer HTC and Microsoft are working to fix those problems. He said the phone has not been delayed, because there are still several months of summer left.
Such tactics are common in the wireless industry, with many wireless players shying away from specific release dates.
However, T-Mobile’s Schindera wouldn’t say when the phone would be released, only that it would be released when all the software glitches are fixed. Schindera also said T-Mobile’s partnership with Microsoft is still sound and the software problems are commonplace for high-end devices, such as those using Microsoft Smartphone software.
Microsoft has been working since the late 1990s to sell mobile phones using its Smartphone software. The company first signed up mobile-phone start-up Sendo to make its smart phones, but Sendo a year ago abruptly dropped those plans and later filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft has managed to line up several Asian manufacturers to build Smartphone devices.
Orange was the first carrier in the world to start selling a device using the Microsoft Smartphone OS late last year. As of about February, the European carrier said it had sold 40,000 of the devices. In the United States, several carriers sell wireless personal digital assistants that use Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system, but none so far have begun selling Smartphone devices. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. plans to sell a Smartphone device by the end of this year and confirmed those plans have not changed.
