MWC 2012: Leaked Image Sparks Sony Windows Phone Rumours

A leaked image purporting to be a Sony handset running Windows Phone has sparked speculation that the company is going to unveil the device at Mobile World Congress next week.

According to Know Your Mobile, rumours are circulating that ‘sources close to Sony’ say that it will debut at Barcelona.

Speculation at this stage

The photo shows a device with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, similar to that of the Xperia Play, with Windows Phone branding and Microsoft’s Bing search engine running on the display.

Sony has recently been developing devices for Google’s Android mobile operating system, including a number of smartphones under its ‘Xperia’ brand and has released two tablets running the software.

Releasing a Windows Phone would mark a major change of direction for Sony. Its current phones are inherited from the Sony Ericsson joint venture which dumped Symbian in 2010. At the time, this left Sony Ericsson with only Android, though it stressed at the time, that it had a “multi-platform strategy.”

Sony assumed full control of the Sony Ericsson joint venture last year, when it bought Ericsson’s stake for £932 million. Sony Ericsson’s share of the global mobile phone market had dwindled to just two percent in 2010 and Sony now hopes to rejuvenate the brand and increase consumer appeal by making full use of its various audio and video properties.

If there is any truth in these latest rumours then it would strengthen the Windows Phone platform which some have predicted will overtake iOS by 2015. Nokia has released two Windows Phone devices, the Nokia Lumia 710 and 800, since it signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft last February. A third smartphone, the Lumia 900, is also on its way and recent research suggested that the Finnish manufacturer may have shipped as many as 1.3 million Windows Phone devices.

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