Indications this summers suggested that HTC was moving away from the Windows Phone platform to focus entirely on Android. Bloomberg has now learned that while HTC has no current plans to launch any Windows Phone 8 devices, Microsoft is trying to woo it back to the fold with a very interesting offer.
Citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” the report suggests that Microsoft is willing to cut or entirely eliminate the licensing fee. More interesting is that Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Operating Systems, also asked HTC about loading Windows Phone as an alternative to Android on its smartphones.
Talks between the two companies are at a preliminary stage and no decisions have yet been taken. Further meetings between Myerson and HTC are planned for this month.
Technical details still need to be worked out. It’s not clear whether the smartphones would be able to run both mobile operating systems concurrently or if users would need to choose a default. A simpler option would be to convert an existing Android smartphone to run Windows Phone, something that was rumoured in the past.
HTC just announced its first ever operating loss for the last quarter as sales failed to meet even its own internal expectations.
Microsoft is also wooing other Asian partners but it’s not clear if it’s making the same offer to companies other than HTC.
Could a merger of two companies struggling in the mobile space turn failure into success?
Source : Bloomberg