As we mentioned earlier that the latest Windows Phone 8.1 is scheduled to arrive in spring we are getting news that Microsoft has pulled in some device manufacturers under its belt. This is one of the big announcements that we were expecting from Microsoft.
With updated hardware features, Microsoft announced its list of device makers for Windows Phone which now include Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Longcheer, Xolo (Lava) and Karbonn along with previous manufacturers Samsung, HTC, Huawei and ZTE.
The new Windows Phone update will be supported on older WP8 devices and will now offer a wider hardware support for chipsets such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200, 400, LTE chipsets as well as support for dual-SIM which will bring Windows Phone to the low-end segment. One of the new features of the 8.1 update includes an on-screen WP navigation buttons, which means that manufacturers will not need hardware capacitive buttons. Manufacturers will now be able to save costs on making separate WP devices and reuse their existing Android smartphones.
It seems that Microsoft is really targeting for the budget segment of smartphones where Android is the leader and quite honestly we think that Windows Phone can do very well even on low end specifications. We expect some new devices to be launched after WP 8.1 is officially announced.