Desperate to boost their Windows 8 OS on mobile devices Microsoft is believed to have offered Samsung $1.1Billion to produce more devices on the Win 8 OS.
Samsung who are facing competition from low cost Google promoted Android smartphones is believed to be considering the offer.
Accordingt to Mobile Review’s Eldar Murtazin, the move is aimed at growing support for the third-place mobile OS beyond Nokia, which accounts for nearly nine out of 10 Windows Phone devices in the hands of consumers.
In the Android market Samsung is the clear winner with over 65% share. A recent Fiksu’s survey reveals that Samsung has 6 of the top 10 devices running on an Android OS.
The other manufacturers are HTC , Motorola, LG and Sony with 6.1%, 5.4%, 4.5% and 2.4% share, respectively.
Forbes claims that over the next year a number of these Android device makers will throw in the towel. They claim there just isn’t enough share for everyone to make money and even now it seems to be only Apple and Samsung who are generating profits in this business.
While Samsung has produced Windows Phone 8 devices in the past, the tech conglomerate has shown off no plans for Windows devices recently.
Likewise, HTC has not produced any new Windows devices in some time. The most recent non-Nokia WP8 device was from Huawei, which released its Ascend W2 earlier this year.
Observers claim that Samsung seems far more interested in putting money behind its line of Galaxy handsets, all of which run the Android mobile operating system produced by Microsoft’s rival, Google.
At a press event earlier this year, Samsung showed off a range of minor Galaxy devices, as well as a number of Windows 8 computers with novel form factors. Absent from the event, though, was any mention of the Windows Phone platform.
Offering Samsung $1 billion, then, would be in keeping with Microsoft’s previous practices. When the company brought Nokia into the Windows Phone manufacturer fold, it did so with $1 billion per year in “platform support payments” to the Finnish manufacturer.
