Lam says Microsoft "basically cleaved off all existing Windows Phone 7.5 devices," effectively nullifying existing versions of the Nokia Lumia, the current flagship product of its primary smartphone manufacturing partner. Although Microsoft is offering the ability to upgrade to the new Windows Phone 7.8, the decision will shorten the Lumia's shelf life to about nine months, Lam says.

"Nokia is already having a tough time building market momentum behind their Lumia line, and now to basically have Microsoft signal to the market that they might as well stop thinking about purchasing Lumia because they're going to have something new in October, it sets up for a difficult sales cycle for Nokia moving on," Lam says.

The Windows Phone 8 announcement wasn't Microsoft's only move this week to have repercussions in the OEM community. On Monday, when Microsoft introduced its internally manufactured Surface tablets, from OEM partners who would now have to compete against Microsoft while also paying to license Windows 8 for their own tablets. Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, said in an interview with IDG News Service that he believes Microsoft's manufacturers "are fairly discontent" about the move from Microsoft.

"The tablet is the heart and soul of Windows 8, and it looks like Microsoft has reserved it," Kay said.

Similarly, Lam says "with the Surface announcements, [Microsoft] basically said to their traditional PC manufacturers making tablets based on Windows 8 that 'this is how you do it right.'"