Nokia has no indication that such a device is being built

Oct 3, 2012 06:23 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has been long rumored to plan the launch of its own handset running under the Windows Phone 8 operating system, yet no confirmation on the matter has emerged so far.

In fact, many industry sources suggest that Microsoft isn’t actually planning the launch of a so-called Surface phone, which would be a match for the Windows 8-based Surface tablet PC that was made official back in June.

Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO, said in a recent interview with AllThingsD that there is no evidence that Microsoft is building such a phone.

“I have no indications they are planning to do their own phone. They can do it if they so choose,” Elop reportedly said.

Should Microsoft launch such a device, it would have a hard time competing with the wide range of high-end devices already available for purchase.