Nvidia-based Microsoft smartphone coming?

Rumors that Microsoft will launch its own smartphones have gained
steam again, with one analyst predicting that the device may be
introduced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in two weeks.

The Microsoft-branded phone may include Nvidia's Tegra processor and a
telecommunications baseband chip from Qualcomm, wrote Doug Freedman of
Broadpoint AmTech in a report Thursday.

Microsoft already sells the Zune portable media player, among other
devices, so it isn't a stranger to the hardware business. And it has
its Windows Mobile OS, which it licenses to other phone makers. But it
doesn't yet have a smartphone of its own.

Rumors surfaced last year that Microsoft would launch a smartphone at
the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but none materialized.
Freedman now believes it will happen at MWC, which takes place Feb.
16-19 in Barcelona.Freedman goes on to say that the company is looking
to support more than just the Windows operating systems and is also
looking to support either RIM (RIMM) or Apple (AAPL).

Should we have to pick between the two we would favor AAPL support as
a building block of Tegra is from PortalPlayer, a past supplier to
AAPL iPod products.