Will we see a compelling line up of Windows Phone products? Yesterday we had an official statement from Microsoft about who their launch partners would be for the Windows Phone 8 launch. You had Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, and HTC. This little group would all be using Qualcomms SoCs under the screens to provide the power for the new phone OS from Microsoft. At the time we thought that including HTC was a little odd since Microsoft shut them out of making an ARM based Windows 8 tablet for the launch. According to some unconfirmed information the reason was that Microsoft did not feel HTC was able to deal with supply issues with Qualcomm and other critical components for the device.Now to be clear, we have not been able to get either HTC or Microsoft to comment on this one way or the other. It still remains as an unconfirmed rumor, but we do know that HTC will not be making a Windows RT tablet in time for the Launch of Windows RT in October/November.
Still there are times when being snubbed makes a company work overtime to prove itself. This could be what is happening now as there is another unconfirmed rumor about HTC and their planned line up of phones for the Windows Phone 8 launch. According to the Verge (who cited sources at HTC) the Taiwanese phone maker will be dropping at least two WP8 phones on the market at launch time with a third to follow.
Now the listing of phones all represent international versions so any US releases are sure to be different (at least in terms of SoC). Accordingly (and if the information is true) HTC will be launching two dual core international phones and a quad core phone. The models are reportedly to be the Zenith, Accord and Rio. The Zenith will be the top end, while the Rio will round out the trio.
The screen sizes will range from 4-inch up to 4.7 inches. The Accord and Rio will have dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoCs in them (once again if this information is true) while the Zenith is rumored to ship with an unnamed quad core SoC from Qualcomm. There are more details, but as the information is not confirmed there is no reason to delve too deeply into it.
What we are reading from this is that there could be a big push from HTC to win back the affection of Microsoft by showing them that they (HTC) can deal with supply and can also build compelling and attractive products. It is important to remember that HTC was one of the first companies to build Windows Mobile phones starting with the PPC-6700 on the Sprint network (I still have one somewhere).
Unfortunately even adding three WP8 phones in comparison to their much larger Android line might not do the trick. It is probably one of the reasons that Microsoft decided to partner with Nokia instead of someone like HTC or Samsung for WP. After all Nokia does not make any Android phones (that we are aware of) so Microsoft was free to step in and, in a way, dictate terms.
Windows Phone 8 will be something to watch in Q1 2013, but it will have little impact on 2012. We also have a feeling that Windows Phone 8 will not be enough to make people leave the phone systems they have come to enjoy unless they were already dissatisfied with what they have. If someone has gone through both iOS and Android there is a chance they will change, but then again if they are that picky they might not like WP8 either.
Discuss this in our Forum
