Apple’s iPhone has apparently convinced Google and Microsoft to follow the footsteps of the Cupertino-based computer giant, according to a report published by Digitimes.

Sources within the Taiwanese tech community have apparently confided that the two behemoths see branded smartphones as a “means to further increase the penetration of their own platforms.”

Google will collaborate with the likes of LG, Samsung, Sony, HTC (and its own Motorola) to launch a series of smartphones based on the Nexus 7 platform, giving manufacturers the flexibility to differentiate their products.

Microsoft on the other hand is said to have enlisted ODM giant Pegatron to make WP8-based smartphones set to be launched in the first half of 2013. Windows Phone 8 officially launches on 29 October.

The two giants may therefore have very diverging strategies, with Google trying to reassure its partners that it won’t turn Motorola Mobility onto them and Microsoft potentially going from friend to foe by pitching a Windows Phone 8 model against its partners’ own products.

Additionally, Microsoft has been fairly stringent as to what platform and interface Windows Phone 8 smartphones can use, reducing the ability of manufacturers to differentiate between models.

Source: Digitimes