This one is likely headed straight to the “Not going to happen anytime soon” category but ZTE would love to build a smartphone powered by iOS. Speaking to PCMag, ZTE USA CEO Lixin Cheng also said that he envisions a future where the modular smartphone concept popularized by Google’s Project Ara and ZTE’s own Eco-Mobius would extend to operating systems. “My vision is that in the future, consumers will be able to refresh a phone and download different kinds of OSes. I hope iOS will even open up; ZTE would jump on the bandwagon and support that,” Cheng said.
Cheng may find himself waiting a long time. The idea of switching operating systems, if not on the fly at least relatively easily, was validated earlier this year with the launch of the Geeksphone Revolution. It can switch between Android and Firefox OS. At the same time, it does not support other operating systems and even offering Firefox meant using the Boot2Gecko by Mozilla (think of the latter as the AOSP version of Firefox). It certainly does not offer the ability to simply download a new OS at a moment’s whim.
The idea of dual-booting or downloadable operating systems is also unlikely to get any support from the companies behind mobile operating systems. A number of hardware companies unveiled dual-booting tablets and convertible notebooks earlier this year but found little support from the software side. Devices such as the Samsung ATIV Q and ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300 have failed to make it to market, likely after pressure from Google and Microsoft.
Do you like the idea of future mobile devices allowing you to download different operating systems? Let us know below.
Source : PCMag