Microsoft Wants To Put Windows Phone On Android Handsets [Report]

I think we can all agree that Nokia’s Windows Phone hardware is great. It’s the Samsung and HTC Windows Phones that are debatable. Microsoft wants to change that.

Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft is currently in talks with HTC to get its Windows Phone 8 operating system on the OEM’s Android handsets. In other words, Microsoft wants to see an HTC One with Windows Phone 8.

Interestingly enough, the report says that Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft’s operating systems unit, asked HTC to offer Windows Phone alongside Android on the manufacturer’s flagship devices. It’s not known at this point if he wants HTC to offer consumers an option of which OS they want, or if Microsoft wants a dual-boot device. HTC would probably prefer the former, but Microsoft would probably love the option of a dual-boot device.

Even if Microsoft can’t convince HTC to put Windows Phone on the One, it at least still has HTC as a partner. The same can’t be said of other OEMs who have exclusively stuck with Android over the past few years. Microsoft is reportedly trying to change that too as reports say Steve Ballmer met with handset manufacturers in Beijing last week to talk about making Windows Phones.

The reported focus of the meeting was to assure handset manufacturers that Microsoft wouldn’t be locking out OEMs after its acquisition of Nokia. In fact, Microsoft is seemingly more aggressive than ever in signing on more OEMs to make Windows Phones with the company even offering to waive licensing fees. In doing so, Windows Phone 8 could become just like Android – a free OS that anybody can use. Of course, Microsoft would still exert some control over how it’s used unlike Google’s hands-off approach to Android.

Still, it’s an interesting concept. Instead of having OEMs make separate devices for Android and Windows Phone 8, they could make one device while allowing consumers to choose whichever OS they want. A dual-boot option would be incredible, but for now, I think we’ll probably see a few test runs to see if Windows Phone 8 sees an uptick in adoption based solely on the availability of new hardware.