In yet another boost for Windows Phone 7, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has expressed its interest in the operating system.
“We are in discussions with Microsoft and will probably bring a Windows Phone to market next year,” chief strategy and marketing officer of Huawei, Victor Xu was quoted as saying by a UK website.
If Huawei really ends up joining Windows Phone 7, there will be a total of eight manufacturers supporting the Microsoft platform after the announcement of the Mango update for WP7 operating system. Microsoft had earlier confirmed that HTC, LG, Nokia, Samsung, Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE would be making the Windows Phones.
So far ZTE and Huawei have been focusing largely on Android smartphones. Huawei could not be expected to lag behind its arch rival anymore.
One thing is for sure, the addition of Huawei and ZTE to the list of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) has almost assured cheaper Windows Phones.
Currently, most Windows Phone 7 devices are by and large high end and too expensive for comfort. Huawei is currently just watching Windows Phone 7’s developments and is likely to release a WP7 device in the market by 2012.
Huawei intends to decrease the cost of smartphones by following the cloud pipe strategy. Through this strategy, most of the data will be processed in the cloud itself, thus enabling manufacturers to reduce the price of the components of the smartphones.