“I like the Windows Phone platform, but I couldn’t have it as my only phone”, is something I hear all the time. Unfortunately there’s a lot of merit to that statement and, even now, I agree. Huawei has heard our gripes and is doing something about them. Sort of…
OK, no matter how clever the engineers at Huawei are, they can’t fix the irritating bits of Windows Phone, but they can make a phone that can run both operating systems, and it seems that they have.
In an exclusive interview with follow tech bloggers Trusted Reviews, Shao Hang, Huawei’s Chief Marketing Officer, has revealed that the Chinese company are expecting to launch a Windows Phone/Android dual OS handset to appeal to fans of both operating systems, and those people in the street who are curious about Windows Phones but don’t want to commit to a 24 month contract with one.
Not only that, but he expects it to be launched in the States during Q2 of this year. He makes it very clear that Huawei is committed to both operating systems, but still has a close eye on other OS developments.
See the highlights of the interview below:
We are still committed to making Windows Phone devices. Compared with Android, the priority of Windows Phone is much lower but is still one of our choices of OS. We are definitely using a multi OS strategy.
With Windows Phone, one direction for us – and one that we are now following – is dual OS. Dual OS as in Android and Windows together.
If it is Windows only, maybe people will not find it as easy a decision to buy the phone. If they have the Android and Windows together, you can change it as you wish and it is much easier for people to choose Windows Phone.
We think the dual OS can be a new choice for the consumer. It will be on sale in the US in Q2.
We are definitely looking at other platforms. For any new operating system we are open to. We need to watch every OS.
This all sounds very promising, if a little oddball, however, very recently Google forcibly “postponed” the launch of the Asus Transformer TD300 hybrid laptop, which paired Android and Windows 8.1. Most of the tech press are assuming the worst, and we’ll probably never see this interesting little beastie.
Does that mean that we won’t see the Huawei either? Well, that’s a different story; what OS would you most regularly boot a laptop to? 99% of us would say Windows, meaning that in the Asus deal Google would be seen as the novelty factor which would get very little use. Also, Android is now headed up by Sundar Pichai, who was the driving force behind Chrome, so one would imagine that Google would much rather you buy a Chromebook anyway!
On the other hand, Google are the big boys in the Huawei deal and I can see most users booting to Android a lot of the time (for the same reasons that they aren’t actually buying Windows phones anyway: lack of apps).
Could Google’s confidence in its own operating system be enough for the Huawei plan to succeed? Hopefully, although I wouldn’t lay money on it.
Would you buy a dual boot phone like this? If so, for what reason? Let us know in the comments section below.