Would You Buy HTC & Other Android Phones with Windows OS?

Is Microsoft going down the same path that BlackBerry is current treading? This question would be in the minds of industry observers as the software company founded by Bill Gates appears to be committing one mistake to another.

First, there was the Surface RT and Surface PRO tablets fiasco that drained a lot of Microsoft's finances. Now, the firm is reportedly proposing for Taiwanese phone maker HTC, which just logged a quarterly loss last week, to add a Windows Phone option to its Android devices.

Reports said that Microsoft Operating Systems Chief Terry Myerson asked HTC in September the possibility of adding the option, with possibly an offer or cutting or removing the patent licensing fees that HTC pays Microsoft for every Android phone it sells.

On the assumption that these speculations and correct and HTC, given its weaker financial standing, would bite Microsoft's offer, there is a question of how the option would work. Could owners of such a device switch from Android OS to Windows or would HTC produce a separate Windows Phone version of a model?

The bigger question is if consumers would be willing to buy a smartphone with Windows Phone OS when these same consumers had shunned the Windows OS-run Surface tablets?

It seems that the smartphone market will continue to be a contest between Apple and Samsung, and all the rest of the brands will just be collateral damage, including HTC and despite the awesome features of its flagship HTC One.

Due to the Apple-Samsung war, HTC's market share further slipped down with the Taiwanese firm shipping only 6.63 million units in Q2, while Windows Phone took its third place position. However, the switch was not because of higher sales for the Windows Phone which has below 4 per cent market share with almost 7.5 million units shipped in the same quarter, but the BlackBerry bloodbath.

HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang told Bloomberg that the next two months would be the biggest challenge to the firm as it tries to eat into Apple and Samsung's market shares.

News of loss caused HTC's shares to drop to NTS126 in Taipei trading, the largest decline since Sept 4. Reckoned from January, HTC's share prices had actually been losing value by 58 per cent as against the 8.2 per cent gain in the benchmark Taiex Index.

HTC's value now is just a tenth of $3.7 billion compared to its peak of $37 billion, said Bloomberg.