Is Micromax working on a Windows Phone? Well, the second largest smartphone manufacturer in Indiaby volume recently made big news when it unleashed a series of promotions featuring Hugh Jackman for the Micromax Canvas Turbo, and also announced its plans to enter the European markets like Russia and Romania, but a Windows Phone that is currently dominated by Nokia? The company’s co-founder Rahul Sharma has admitted in an interview that they are indeed working on them, and claims to have them ready for a launch mid next year. Above image is just a mock up we did to see how Windows Phone might look on the recently launched Micromax Canvas Turbo.
Here’s the exact snippet where the co-founder has admitted that they are working on a Windows Phone. It’s an interesting answer to an interesting question -Do you think Nokia’s sale to Microsoft has had any impact on players like yourself? Are you planning to make Windows smartphones sometime in the future?
It has been good for us because they have chosen to stick to the Windows operating system. Had they chosen Android, it would have been a threat for us. But now we’re certain that they will not look at Android, which means lesser competition for us. We are working on a Windows phone and you might see something from us around mid of next year.
It’s clear that they are working on it. Even the question to “when” is partially addressed but how and what are two huge questions that intrigue us. It’s no secret that Steve Ballmer has been recently courting various OEMs from China, who are reportedly being the ODMs for Indian OEMs like Micromax. It was also reported that Microsoft is loosening up the requirements for a hardware based shortcut arrangement, making it easier for Android manufacturers to target Windows Phone with similar hardware, but the question is, will Windows Phone get the widely used MediaTek SoC support? Or has it already? Because, it’s been a Snapdragon monopoly on Windows Phone so far, but Chinese OEMs, and of course many Indian OEMs are major consumers of the MediaTek chipset and if Microsoft is making it easier for Android hardware to support Windows Phone, the popular SoC support is surely in the works. Or may be Snapdragon is still the one, we don’t know for sure.
Nevertheless, Micromax admitting they are working on Windows Phones is really intriguing. With their momentum in India, it is highly possible that they topple Samsung, but cheap and powerful Windows Phone, which have the ability to run smooth on lower end hardware will have interesting implications on the ecosystem, especially now that India, as a country is used to Windows Phone thanks to Nokia. Anyways, what do you think? Is a Micromax Windows Phone good for the ecosystem and good for you? Will you buy one?
