A new report based partially on rumors suggests that the software colossus Microsoft is planning its own mobile phone. Last year, rumors stated that this would happen at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but thus far nothing has happened.

Now Microsoft is responding and its answer is “No.” "Microsoft is not doing a phone," a Microsoft spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. Speculation about a Microsoft phone recently intensified once again. Microsoft could release a Zune phone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas based on its struggling media player platform, said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research two months ago. A Zunephone never made its debut at CES, either.

Microsoft has had a good presence about the Microsoft smartphone, but has never been in production of Window Mobile services. This rumor has only escalated because Microsoft continues to invest and improve its Windows Mobile operating system.

What is known for sure, according to a report on the Engadget consumer-electronics blog, and subsequent ones posted elsewhere, the service would enable users running Windows Mobile to back up and restore phone data on a password-protected Web site.

But regarding an eventual smartphone, the report said a Microsoft smartphone will use graphics chipmaker nVidia's Tegra line of multi-core chips, which is also used in devices by handset maker HTC. But despite the report, Microsoft waved away claims that it was getting into the smartphone business, which would have also put it at odds with handset manufacturers partners that license its Windows Mobile operating system for use in their own devices.