Reuters reports: “Microsoft will not launch a product that competes directly with Apple’s iPhone, Chairman Bill Gates said in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.”

“No, we won’t do that. In the so-called smart phone business we will concentrate solely on software with our Windows Mobile program,” Gates was quoted as saying in the interview published on Wednesday.

“We have partnerships with a lot of device manufacturers from Samsung to Motorola and this variety brings us significantly more than if we would make our own mobile phone,” he added.