Huawei Quits Windows Phone, Goes Completely Android
Huawei has decided to stop releasing Windows Phones for now, as Microsoft's mobile OS seems to be less attractive for consumers than Android and Apple's iOS. "It wasn't profitable for us," Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer business group, told the Wall Street Journal. "We were losing money for two years on those phones. So for now we've decided to put any releases of new Windows phones on hold."
Huawei launched its first Windows Phone 8 handsets in 2012, alongside Nokia, Samsung, and HTC.
To help other phone makers stay on board, Microsoft recently made it easier to convert existing Android phone designs to Windows Phone. For instance, HTC has recently released the HTC One (M8) for Windows, which has exactly the same hardware as its Android counterpart.
According to IDC, Windows Phone shipments decreased last quarter, and market share fell to just 2.5 percent.
Huawei's Yu also commneted on the Tizen OS, thee operating system that has been pushed mainly by Samsung as an alternative to Android.
"In the past we had a team to do research on Tizen but I canceled it," Yu said. "We feel Tizen has no chance to be successful."