

Microsoft  Looking To Put Windows Phone On Android Devices, Starting With HTC - diminish
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/04/microsoft-reportedly-looking-to-put-windows-phone-on-android-devices-starting-with-htc/

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JimmaDaRustla
Of course they mean release the same hardware with Windows pre-installed.

Would be funny if Google developed something like UEFI if mobile opened up to
multiple operating systems.

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hayksaakian
not sure why drivebyacct2 is dead, but his comment was useful

> UEFI+SecureBoot can be implemented on ARM devices. And already is in almost
> every case, it just isn't turned on except for, as an example, most
> Verizon/ATT variants of phones.

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bornhuetter
drivebyacct2 has been dead for a long time, but he frequently makes insightful
and informative comments.

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hayksaakian
can't the mods fix this? makes no sense

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ArcticCelt
Even if I am an Android long time user I would love to have an easy way to
experiment with two OS on the same device. I'll be then able to end up using
the one I like the most. Competition is great.

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ethana
I'm pretty certain if they would've name it Banana Phone or xPhone or
AnythingButWindows Phone, their market share would be much better than what it
is now.

Windows Phone 7 came out grabbing the tail of the disaster that was Windows
Mobile 6.1 did not do them any marketing good.

I'm not so sure a dual OS booting phone will be a mainstream success.

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wtracy
If you're familiar with the what happened between Be Inc. and Microsoft back
in the 90s, this is pretty hilarious.

(Be wanted OEMs to sell computers that dual-booted Windows 95 and BeOS.
Microsoft retaliated by cutting off those manufacturers from the normal OEM
discount on Windows licenses.)

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sremani
Does Google sell Android OS and of course any retaliation on HTC by Google
would start Anti-trust, as happened in the case of Microsoft

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wrl
Unless I'm mistaken, WP8 phones have UEFI Secure Boot too, and it can't be
turned off like on desktop systems.

So now that Microsoft wants more market share, suddenly dual-booting phones is
okay, but I doubt they'll lift the secure boot restriction on their own
devices.

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Pxtl
This could be critical if they make any headway in enterprise. Look at it this
way: if MS figures out the "Killer App" for enterprise phones, they can easily
have an IT department do a migration of their Android-based phones to
WinPhone8.

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Touche
Why doesn't Microsoft just fork Android like Amazon did, give it a Metro
interface (it could look exactly the same as WP does today)? I can't think of
any reason for them not to do this now...

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smackfu
> I can't think of any reason for them not to do this now...

Besides the fact that it would be a total rewrite?

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Touche
A rewrite of a failing product shouldn't be an issue.

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danieldk
Except that Windows Phone is currently doing very well in some regions. For
instance, in the largest European economies they currently have 10% of the
smartphone sales. And quarter over quarter growth is good. It's only a small
chunk of the pie, but numbers that start to matter. For reference, the share
of the iPhone in these economies is currently around 16%.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-cellphones-
euro...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-cellphones-europe-
idUSBRE98T0RN20130930)

~~~
camus
they are doing so well they are going for the dual boot scheme, how does MS
kool aid taste ? Windows Phones are a disaster, that cost Ballmer his job.

~~~
pmelendez
"they are doing so well they are going for the dual boot scheme"

Apple Mac were doing well when they decided to dual boot with Windows. It is
just a fact that Android is dominating so giving an option to boot to the
dominating OS would let them to increase the installed base.

>"how does MS kool aid taste ?" I am not the OC but why you have to be that
rude?

>"Windows Phones are a disaster, that cost Ballmer his job." I use the three
OSs and WP8 is by far my favourite, it is very hard for me to see that as a
disaster.

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jsz0
Seems like a smart move to me. Windows Phone is irrelevant to most consumers
despite years of advertising by Microsoft. People just don't have a compelling
reason to use it over more popular alternatives. If they can try it out risk
free perhaps some will stick with it. Kind of a long shot move but at this
point they are running out of options.

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unwiredben
There's enough interesting IP out there for running Android apps on other OSes
that I could see MS adding that as a subsystem on WinPhone, but it looks like
this is more about dual-boot. I find dual booting a phone to be silly, but
could see the draw in having an Android VM for app use in WinPhone.

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w1ntermute
This seems like a total waste of time. The biggest problem for Windows Phone
is the ecosystem. The OS is good and the hardware (Lumias) is good. They have
phones in stores and with most carriers. Installing WP on more devices isn't
going to solve the problem.

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untog
There's always a fundamental demand/supply problem. People won't buy a WP
device until there are more apps. Devs won't make WP apps until there are more
users. This is an interesting attempt at shortcutting that.

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option_greek
Of course, now that Nokia is assimilated, the Borg needs to move on to the
next target.

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barista
This would be great for me as a user. I am not a big fan of the android UX but
they got the apps I want. So I can use Windows phone for day to day use and
only when I want the app that windows doesn't have I can go to android. Of
course having to boot would suck but maybe that can be made faster.

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stfu
I am having a hard time imagining what functionality you are missing in
Android that Windows is providing? Not trying to defend either one of both,
just being curious.

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pmelendez
As a user of both I like the experience on WP8 way better. I don't know about
OC but I would be missing Xbox music, Office, Skydrive, Live Tiles and People
Hub. Here in Canada there are not really an alternative to Xbox Music (Nokia
music maybe), Google Docs doesn't provide the same experience as Office and
between DropBox and Skydrive I prefer the last one.

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bane
Out of curiosity, does Google Music not work in Canada?

Quickoffice (the app) also ain't too bad. But I don't know how well it
compares to WP8 Office.

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pmelendez
No, Google Music is not in Canada yet. QuickOffice is not bad but Office is so
well integrated with the OS and Skydrive that makes me like it better.

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camus
Microsoft wants your phone to be a PC , then the embrace - extend - extinguish
walk will be on, with all the dirty tricks,racketeering and blackmailing MS
can do like it did for over 2 decades with it's OEM 'partner'.

And MS wonders why it has such a bad reputation now.

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sremani
Troll

