Huawei’s future Windows Phone product development is put ‘on hold’

By Williams Pelegrin August 25, 2014

Huawei Ascend Mate 2 top left screen — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Huawei’s most recent Windows Phone handset, the Ascend W2, was released back in November of last year. However, it looks like that could be the company’s last Windows Phone handset for some time, if Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business group, has anything to say about it.

Huawei has had a hard time persuading customers to purchase one of the company’s Windows Phone handsets, said Yu in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It wasn’t profitable for us,” said Yu. “We were losing money for two years on those phones.” As a result, any future Windows Phone product development has been put “on hold,” with Yu not saying when the Chinese-based company might go back to it.

Related: Huawei’s got a new smartphone to show us, teases September 4 event

On the topic of Tizen, while several unnamed mobile networks have made requests for Huawei to make smartphones based on the operating system, Yu feels like the platform has “no chance to be successful.” While he stated that Huawei had a research unit looking into Tizen, he revealed that he has since shut it down.

Finally, as far as Android is concerned, Yu admitted that he is concerned about Google’s operating system being “the only option” for the company. At the same time, he feels as if the company has “no choice,” though Yu did say he has a “good collaboration” with Google.

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Williams Pelegrin

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Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

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