Huawei: We'll sell a dual-boot Android, Windows 8 smartphone because, well, isn't it obvious?

Huawei is planning an assault on the American smartphone market with a dual-boot smartphone running both Google's Android operating system and Redmond's Windows Phone. "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," Shao Yang, Huawei's …

[FordPrefect]

I like this idea I'm hopeful eventually you buy your hardware like a PC and use whichever OS suits you best. Got bored of android, try firefox OS, dont like that go back to the latest google vanilla android, then a month later fancy checking out windows phone makes sense for MS too as more people will be willing to try windows phone if they arent stuck with it for 2 years!

[Anonymous Coward]

So, instead of one thing that can go wrong, two things can!

[Charles Manning]

Good idea

It only costs them a bit of extra flash.

No doubt this will attract a lot of attention from those who are curious about WP, but not prepared to take the risk of buying a WP phone.

This will finally put WP to the test on an even playing field and will call MS's bluff.

In a short time Huawei will be number one.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: Good idea

> It only costs them a bit of extra flash.

It is alleged that a Windows Phone license will cost $20 - $30.

WP only runs on a small number of different SoCs. These are mostly from 2012, with one new one apparently in 8.1 and are all dual-core. Newer SoCs can be cheaper because they are made in larger numbers and may include more features and more modern ones.

The phone would also have to impose the restrictions of WP.

Thus a phone that can run WP is likely to be more expensive than an equivalent one that runs Android, and/or Sailfish, and/or Firefox OS, and/or Tizen.

[Suburban Inmate]

Re: Good idea

What about telling MS a big NOPE at the EULA and asking for a refund?

[big_D]

Re: Good idea

The new WP8 phones run on a Snapdragon 800, so not that out of date.

And in other news, Microsoft is giving WP8 away to some manufacturers (see El Reg news from yesterday http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/13/microsoft_gives_away_winpho_licences_in_india_report/ ).

[fandom]

Re: Good idea

"It is alleged that a Windows Phone license will cost $20 - $30."

But it may include a free we-won't-sue-you-for-using-linux license, so it may not add anything to the cost of the phone.

This is kind of funny, remember when MS wouldn't let OEMs to add BeOs as a second OS? Pity they aren't treated that way.

[Duke2010]

Re: Good idea

"It is alleged that a Windows Phone license will cost $20 - $30."

Microsoft have been toying with the idea of giving WP 8 away for free. Im sure Huwai will get a good deal.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: Good idea

>> "It is alleged that a Windows Phone license will cost $20 - $30."

> Microsoft have been toying with the idea of giving WP 8 away for free.

It seems that this is to 'developing markets', such as India, to a couple of companies only, and for a limited time.

The first hit is always free.

> Im sure Huwai will get a good deal.

But will it be $billion a year that Nokia used to get ?

[Ross K]

Huawei offer you Android and Windows in one phone...

So you can have a choice on whether you want a Chinese or NSA/GCHQ backdoor built in

[Michael Habel]

Re: Huawei offer you Android and Windows in one phone...

Yeah lets build our own stacks with over the counter GSM Radios that haven't already been compromised either by the NSA/GCHQ or whomever.... Talk about FUD! I'd prefer to have a device that was less interested in where I was, and whom I'm with. But, that line has already been crossed, so either learn to deal with it or find an old Nokia 3330...

[Ross K]

Re: Huawei offer you Android and Windows in one phone...

Yeah lets build our own stacks with over the counter GSM Radios that haven't already been compromised either by the NSA/GCHQ or whomever.... Talk about FUD! I'd prefer to have a device that was less interested in where I was, and whom I'm with. But, that line has already been crossed, so either learn to deal with it or find an old Nokia 3330...

Hey Mr Angry, my post was tongue-in-cheek.

The three other people who upvoted it understood that.

Sorry you have no sense of humour.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Huawei offer you Android and Windows in one phone...

"So you can have a choice on whether you want a Chinese or NSA/GCHQ backdoor built in"

On balance I think I'd rather the Chinese back door on my private phone, and the NSA on the works devices.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Huawei offer you Android and Windows in one phone...

> On balance I think I'd rather the Chinese back door on my private phone, and the NSA on the works devices.

Yep, I am all supportive for a dual-ballot box, too. :-)

[Hi Wreck]

And the point would be?

Work phone/personal phone?

[Anonymous Bullard]

Microsoft must be desperate. On the PC, Windows never plays nicely with dual-boot.

[JDX]

Yes it does.

[DropBear]

I'll make sure to get back to you on that...

...when Windows stops buggering up my perfectly fine independent boot manager every time it's installed, without as much as a single question of whether I'd like it to nuke my MBR from orbit.

[JDX]

Apologies

Maybe I just know what I'm doing.

[Michael Habel]

On Paper this sounds nice and, all but I'm somehow less enthused at the idea of Windows Genuine (Dis)Advantage on my Phone... Its quite enough having to worry about the Battery drain as it is.... And I wouldn't care to even pay the Windows Tax on such a device, as the first thing to go would be Windows Phone OS for FireFox? (Probably not!), Android (definitely) or most likely Linux Ubuntu. Assuming it could be installed on any device once it hits that is. So I think a dual booting 'Droid *Buntu would rock my socks!

[JDX]

What battery drain?

[Bloakey1]

"What battery drain?"

The one that deals with the stack overflow and is connected to the synch.

I will get my coat and bowler hat. Toodlepip.

[SuccessCase]

"The Chinese hardware maker, which is the third largest smartphone manufacturer on the planet these days, has made no secret of the fact that it's gunning to take on the two big biggest players in the game: Apple and Samsung."

You mean they are planning on actually competing against their biggest competitors? Blow me down.

[xperroni]

You mean they are planning on actually competing against their biggest competitors? Blow me down.

Don't be daft. Apple and (to a large extent) Samsung target the upper end of the market: intensive app users who are willing to pay more for a product they perceive as being of higher value. But there's also a large (if not as lucrative) market for cheap handsets the carriers buy in bulk and hand to customers who don't know any better, and/or are in fact wowed by getting a gizmo "for free".

For mobile companies in the bulk / "free" handset segment, selling directly to carriers instead of end-users, Apple and Samsung are not "competitors"; they exist in a different market altogether, even if their devices include nominally equivalent features. This is where Huawei stood until now, and so it makes perfect sense to say they haven't really gone up against neither yet.

[Fuzz]

"For mobile companies in the bulk / "free" handset segment, selling directly to carriers instead of end-users, Apple and Samsung are not "competitors";"

I agree with you on Apple, but Samsung compete across all phone markets from crappy candy bar handsets that struggle to do much beyond make calls, through a succession of Android devices from the very cheap right up to the S5. They also dabble in other OSes including Windows phone. I'd say Samsung is exactly the company Huawei are trying to compete with.

[xperroni]

I agree with you on Apple, but Samsung compete across all phone markets from crappy candy bar handsets that struggle to do much beyond make calls (...).

Given, but at the crap-phone level Samsung's leverage over other companies is very limited, and they're nowhere close to the virtual duopoly they enjoy at the top smartphone range along Apple. It's at this segment that they pose a more crucial challenge.

[SuccessCase]

@xperroni "they exist in a different market altogether" of course there is segmentation and to say they exist in different markets is playing semantics as you yourself prove by saying Samsung target the upper end of THE market" (my emphasis. THE = definite article covering upper, middle and lower price points), so it seems you're calling yourself a bit daft. Plus, of course you are simply wrong, for the reason that for what you are saying to be true, the must rarely be users who walk into a store selling Huawei handsets and purchase one after considering buying an iPhone, albeit at a somewhat different price point. There will be plenty who have had the thought, "hmm, this vastly cheaper handset is actually pretty damned good for my needs in comparison with that lovely shiny iPhone I was just looking at. Maybe I should go with this one instead"

There will also, of course, also be plenty who's thought process has gone the other way "hmmm this precision metal iPhone really does look lovely under the spotlights of this cool Apple Store. It does cost more, but hell, I'll go for it"

[Anonymous Coward]

I like it.....

Windows for the work stuff (resplendent with beloved employer's performance-sucking control freakery) and Android for personal, all in one device with one number.

[Anonymous Coward]

What gets in my craw...

What gets in my craw is that Microsoft is taking this angle because it recognises that it needs more 'ins' on the market, but it actually made steps to stop non-Windows desktop OSes from doing the same way back when it had the power to do this.

In a fantasy world where Windows Phone becomes a dominant platform, I can imagine Microsoft starting to tell manufacturers that they shouldn't be doing dual boot and that Windows Phone should get exclusivity.

I'm sure that Google would like to stop this from happening and I'm sure that they're already doing stuff to stop it from happening, and I also think that Microsoft is now a different company, but it still leaves a bad taste that the very thing that Microsoft blocked for others is what it is relying on now.

I'm, however, a very happy Windows Phone user.

[JDX]

Microsoft is taking this angle because

Um, MS isn't taking an angle, Huawei is.

ps: how do you pronounce Huawei?

[Wilseus]

Re: What gets in my craw...

"I also think that Microsoft is now a different company, but it still leaves a bad taste that the very thing that Microsoft blocked for others is what it is relying on now."

They are still behaving like this. UEFI anyone?

[Longrod_von_Hugendong]

That idea...

Might just work!! Nice one.

[sabroni]

Great Idea

Now just let me reboot my phone because I need to see a text I got yesterday on the other OS.

[Sheep!]

WinDroid

Why don't MS just virtualise Android within Windows for a true WinDroid experience so you can call Android up without having to completely reboot the system, share files seemlessly between the two and then the whole idea of migrating from Android to Windows becomes a much more realistic one. Who the hell is going to want to completey reboot their phone every time they want to switch between systems? Rather than taking Android on, they can simply incorporate it into their ecosystem and then the user can have the best of both worlds and those who have invested heavily in Android and apps can move to the Windows system without fear of losing that investment.

[Jess]

At least when the version of WP becomes obsolete, hopefully you will be able to keep the device current with a cyanogen mod.

[tracyanne]

Would I buy a dual boot Android Windows phone

in a word... No.

[Anonymous Coward]

Tech support for a dual OS phone will be a nightmare

Then again, it's Huawei we're talking about: underpriced, low spec phones and an underwhelming Android UI skin. Nobody will expect much from Huawei's hardware, the software or the after-sales support.