Rumor: Samsung and Huawei being courted to make dual-boot Windows Phones?

By Andy Boxall October 14, 2013

samsung and huawei windows phoneandroid dual boot phones phone 8 ballmer — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Recently, a report indicated Microsoft was busy convincing HTC it should create dual-booting smartphones, where Android would be the primary OS, but the option would be there to activate Windows Phone. It sounded like a strange attempt to increase market share without having to go to all the trouble of actually selling any phones, and not one of Microsoft’s better ideas.

Now, according to Mobile-Review, it appears Microsoft didn’t only pitch the plan to HTC, but also to Samsung and Huawei. These three firms have been the primary suppliers of Windows Phone hardware over the past year or so, so it makes sense for their names to be on Microsoft’s list of targets.

Apparently, Samsung may be entertaining the idea – as we already know, it loves to throw as much as it can at the wall to see what sticks, in the hope of making the next big thing – as there aren’t all that many technical concerns. The problems could be on the business side, and may concern how much Samsung is going to have to pay for the pleasure of using Windows Phone this way. It was written in the previous report that Microsoft may have been offering HTC a break on the license fee for making these dual-boot phones, but that may not be enough for Samsung to go ahead.

The Mobile-Review article also mentions a dual-boot Windows/Android tablet, which could go on sale next year. This may be the delayed Ativ Q tablet, which was launched in June, then apparently suffered a setback which has seen the release date cancelled for now. The hardware worked perfectly well when we saw it then, so we wonder if it’s licensing or legal issues which are the cause of the delay. Have these been solved, and does agreeing to consider make a dual-boot Windows Phone/Android device have anything to do with it?

All this is still speculation, and there’s no confirmation any of these companies will end up building a dual-boot smartphone. But it does make it sound like Microsoft is working all the angles to increase Windows Phone’s visibility.

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Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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