Microsoft is looking to put a 'little dent' in Apple's smartphone business

Microsoft is looking to put a "little dent" in Apple's smartphone business, according to Steve Guggenheimer, he corporate vice president and chief evangelist at Microsoft.

Guggenheimer told The Indo-Asian News Service that Microsoft is "sort of re-building" its smartphone business, leveraging Nokia's Lumia brand and the Windows 10 operating system.

"Lumia has stretched from really low end to medium to high," he said. "The truth of the matter is that globally the company that takes the most margin for phones is Apple. We want to put a little dent in that."

Apple takes the majority of smartphone profits through the iPhone. In 2015, the smartphone on its own will have contributed $154 billion (£100 billion) to Apple's bottom line. In contrast, Microsoft's smartphone market share sits at around 2.5% globally.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has previously been positive about the outlook for Microsoft-branded phones, tightly integrating them into Windows 10 and promoting them heavily. Guggenheimer's statement that the company wants to make a "little dent" is a first for Microsoft and a candid admission of the uphill struggle the company is facing.

One area of focus for Microsoft's phones is in business. The Office suite, which is available on Windows 10 phones, and is a key selling point for the Lumia handsets. "If you use the phone as a business tool, the way our phones work with Microsoft Office, the way it helps users create calendar and emails and all those things seamless is awesome," Guggenheimer said.