Despite having manufactured its own tablet, Microsoft apparently will not be making self-branded Windows Phones. Greg Sullivan, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone, was asked by Information Week if the company had plans to develop its own cellphones. "No, we do not," Sullivan said. "We have a strong ecosystem of partners that we are very satisfied with." As announced last week, that ecosystem includes Nokia, HTC, Samsung, and Huawei, all of whom will be running phones on "next generation silicon" from Qualcomm.

Microsoft has worked hard enough on building Windows Phone relationships that we're not surprised to see it sticking with its partners. However, the company's comments during the Surface tablet launch called these relationships into question, with Microsoft claiming that "what our software could do would require us to push hardware, sometimes where our partners hadn't envisioned," so it's noteworthy to have confirmation.