News - Windows RT and Windows Phone to be free to device makers?

[HEXUS]

Pricing change is expected to coincide with the release of 'Threshold'.

Read more.

[kingpotnoodle]

They should do this NOW... but then again shortly it will be practically free to the best manufacturer or Windows phones. Maybe Lumia prices will fall a bit?

[crossy]

If they want to encourage manufacturers then best way surely is to encourage customer demand. And the best way to do that is to encourage developers to code for the platform.

As far as I see it smartphone platforms fall into a Definitely/Probably/Possibly trio. Pick a non-trivial app and ask "Is it on this smartphone OS?". With iOS it's "Definitely", with Android "Probably", and Windows Phone 8 is still "Possibly". So encourage more developers and get that Possibly to a Probably. (And don't flame me - I know that there's Android or WP8 apps that aren't on iOS).

Big plus for Microsoft is of course that they presumably get money from the developers kit and failing that, a slice of the app store payments. On the other hand, making the OS free surely won't cut the purchase cost of the phone by that much.

The interest for me though is that a "free" WindowsRT - if the full edition - might mean that the no-brand Chinese makers pick it up, and we'll see some very price-attractive ways to run Office on the move.

[crossy]

1. Make it free.

2. Release installable versions for popular rootable android phones. Microsoft are big enough to do this if they want.

If they do both of these (They will never do both) then suddenly you'll have lots of geeks upgrading to new phones knowing their 'old' phone can be reused as a 'I'll give it a bash' Windows device rather than sold on eBay or passed down to a family member.

Actually, that's a damned good idea - especially given the atrocious support wrt OS upgrades that Google seems to be happy with in Android at the moment. The "two upgrades and you're done" attitude.

Also be a damned fine way to prove this "Windows Phone 8 is less resource intensive" claim that Microsoft trots out at intervals. And on the tablet side, heck I can think of a couple of folks who'd LOVE to be able to install RT on old tablets. Windows RT running HP TouchPad anyone?

[Denis_iii]

I don't want dual booting but the ability to install my OS of choice on any device same as PC ecosystem.

[directhex]

Price is not the problem with Windows Phone. Consumer demand is.