News - Microsoft wants HTC to offer dual-boot Win-droid smartphones

[HEXUS]

Meanwhile HTC slips into the red with its 3rd quarter results.

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[nKwoel]

Seems legit

[Nobull]

Dual boot? This could swing my next phone handset purchase. Would be great to have the option of switching, especially for apps that aren't available on WP8. If they could integrate them well and have a seamless file system that would allow a headache free dual boot that would be immense.

The main worry would be how badly that would hammer internal storage, and whether expandable storage could compensate.

[LeetyMcLeet]

Dual boot? This could swing my next phone handset purchase. Would be great to have the option of switching, especially for apps that aren't available on WP8. If they could integrate them well and have a seamless file system that would allow a headache free dual boot that would be immense.

The main worry would be how badly that would hammer internal storage, and whether expandable storage could compensate.

I was thinking the same thing. I like WP8, but I just can't give up my Droid. I wouldn't be able to play Ingress! The first problem, if this is true, would surely be firmware updates and (lack of) usable storage :/

[UseItNow]

I'd quite love my HTC One to have Windows on there too!

[herulach]

why? Other than artificially inflating the installed base I really can't see there being much demand for this. synchronisation of contacts, emails, photos etc would make it a nightmare for your average user who would likely just stick to whichever one plays candy crush best and power users are much more likely to just stick with android.

A wine like layer for android seems to make much more sense if people want win8 apps (although I can't think of any I'd want that don't have an android version.

[gagaga]

Microsoft seem to be playing chess with the Windows Phone strategy whilst everyone else is playing videogames.

[crossy]

why? Other than artificially inflating the installed base I really can't see there being much demand for this. synchronisation of contacts, emails, photos etc would make it a nightmare for your average user who would likely just stick to whichever one plays candy crush best and power users are much more likely to just stick with android.

I can't see why sync of contacts and emails should be a big deal - just setup a Google account on the Android side and then setup WP8 to sync to that account. Job done. Heck Microsoft even give instructions at To set up a Google account. EDIT: Actually now I think of it, my youngest kid must have done this when she migrated from Android to WP8 (HTC 8S).

Photo/music sync I'd assume would have to be handled by some kind of shared filesystem - easiest way to do this I guess would be to store all that content on a uSD card formatted exFAT. Android reads/writes that fine, and since Windows7 does as well then I'm going to assume that WP8 either already supports it, or could be quickly upgraded to do so.

If this came to pass it'd definitely be more of a benefit to Microsoft than HTC - mainly because it'd allow folks like me who want to "dabble" with WP8 to do so without leaving the comfort blanket of Android. Then again, it might be quite interesting to see Android and WP8 running on the same hardware. Unfortunate that it'd be HTC, who seem to have a positive talent for underestimating either storage or RAM.

Now what I'd really see is it the other way - a Nokia Lumia running Android!

PS Like your idea of a VM environment for WP8 that would let Android apps run.

[george1979]

why? Other than artificially inflating the installed base I really can't see there being much demand for this. .

I don't see how it would artificially inflate their user base. If people bought this they would most likely be buying it to have both OSes so it wouldn't be artificial at all.

This would interest me as I really like the Windows Phone OS and would like to stay with it (and Nokia) come upgrade time in a few months but it does bug me to see apps I'd like to use only available on iOS or Android so I am considering jumping ship. A dual OS would allow me to have the best of both worlds (assuming its implemented well).

[herulach]

I don't see how it would artificially inflate their user base. If people bought this they would most likely be buying it to have both OSes so it wouldn't be artificial at all.

This would interest me as I really like the Windows Phone OS and would like to stay with it (and Nokia) come upgrade time in a few months but it does bug me to see apps I'd like to use only available on iOS or Android so I am considering jumping ship. A dual OS would allow me to have the best of both worlds (assuming its implemented well).

Would it though? Say it was a game you wanted to play while you're at the bus stop, and be very generous and assume it can reboot twice as fast as my current android phone (so about 20 seconds till its ready). Are you really going to be arsed? Maybe I'm just lazy, but I've run dual boot windows/*nix machines for the last 10 years or so, and to be honest, the games machines live in windows unless I need to do something very specific in linux. The laptops are more or less the opposite. I think if most people are honest they'd find themselves doing the same thing.

All power to the people that want to do it, and if samsung want to chuck money at it it kind of makes sense, but if I was HTC I'd be more likely to cut my losses on win phone entirely and focus my effort on producing great devices like they used to (Magic, Universal, Wizard etc.)

[Ecliption]

All power to the people that want to do it, and if samsung want to chuck money at it it kind of makes sense, but if I was HTC I'd be more likely to cut my losses on win phone entirely and focus my effort on producing great devices like they used to (Magic, Universal, Wizard etc.)


Very well said. The thought of having both OS's would be nice. And about HTC, ^ what he ^ said

[Lucio]

I don't see how offering dual boot is an incentive for a device that's usually always on. It's not like a PC where you might switch your OS to complete a specific task.

[THESPECIAL1]

\\\\\\\\\\\something I would definitely be interested in.

[directhex]

License fees aren't what's keeping corps from putting Windows on phones.

After all, they pay for Android licenses.

It's the lukewarm sales.

A phone which costs $15 more to sell and sells well is much more valuable to a company than a phone which is $15 cheaper but just sits in phone shop warehouses forever.

[Saracen]

I can't see why sync of contacts and emails should be a big deal - just setup a Google account on the Android side and then setup WP8 to sync to that account. ....

And hand all your contact data to Google? Personally, no way in hell. Then again, I'm not interested in a WP8 phone anyway, so it's academic for me.

[crossy]

And hand all your contact data to Google? Personally, no way in hell. Then again, I'm not interested in a WP8 phone anyway, so it's academic for me.

OP I was replying to was saying that contact sync was difficult - so I was pointing out that it wasn't. And actually my youngest kid pointed out that she could sync her Android phone with Outlook and then sync the new WP8 one with the same data source (Outlook), so there's a second route - one that doesn't involve a trip to the Googleverse.

And yes, I know you regard your contact list as sacrosanct, fair enough. Then again, got to wonder if Google are able to infer your contact list from the other side, e.g. do the "Bacon Number" trick? if those contacts aren't taking the same privacy-is-paramount view as you do.

PS please don't take the above as a criticism - everyone's entitled to their opinion - merely pointing out that your data might already be out there without your explicit consent. Of course, I'm also prepared to be told that I'm out of line here.