Microsoft has exited the smartphone business for the time being, and at least one exec there says it's no big deal.

"The phone is already dead," Alex Kipman, the inventor of Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality glasses, told Bloomberg in an interview. "People just haven't realized."

The statement might come as a surprise to Apple, which announced on Tuesday that it had sold more than 50 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2017 -- a number that actually disappointed investors, who were expecting around 52 million.