Microsoft Readying New Surface Tablets, Possibly Surface Phones For Monday Launch

It should come as a surprise to no one that Microsoft hasn't been pleased with how smartphones equipped with its mobile OS have been selling, with many speculating that a solution could only come about if the company took things into its own hands. Well, with its announced acquisition of Nokia, it's clear that Microsoft believes the same thing - but just how far are things going to go?

According to new reports, Microsoft could go the way of Google and develop its own phones and then get a third-party to manufacture them (in this case, taking advantage of Nokia's resources). If Microsoft were to take this route, it's believed that the device would fall into the Surface family - and wouldn't you know it, a special Surface launch is taking place tomorrow in New York.

Admittedly, it seems a little unlikely at this point that Microsoft would be ready to reveal a Surface phone, especially so soon after announcing its intent to acquire Nokia, but given the fact that the company was very quick to remove Nokia branding from the Lumia 520 smartphone, it wouldn't be that surprising if it did happen.

One interesting thing to glean about Surface is that to date, all products that fall into that family have been equipped with Microsoft's Windows OS, not Windows Phone. If Microsoft's self-designed phone becomes a reality, that's likely to change, resulting in a spanning of three different OSes (Windows RT, Windows 8 and Windows Phone) under the same Surface brand - some might just call that a little confusing.