With Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Huawei all already onboard with Windows Phone 8, other manufacturers are considering joining the fray, LG being one such name and the other, possibly being Asus.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (as the company is officially called) is said to be having discussions with Microsoft over licenses to utilise their Windows Phone mobile operating system in an Asus-made handset. The Taiwanese company have already made a name for themselves in the mobile space by partnering with Google on the highly successful Nexus 7 Android tablet which launched last year and made headlines with impressive sales, now standing at over 3 million units shifted.
According to the Wall Street Journal, companies like Asus are shifting their product lineups more and more towards mobile as smartphone shipments are said to have increased by 45% in the last year, while PC shipments only grew by 3.2% (according to stats accumulated by IDC).
Beyond the smartphone, Asus might also be considering their popular Padfone form factor for a Windows device, although the implementation is likely to be more difficult than with Google’s Android platform. The restrictive specifications for both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 present an issue in compatibility and scalability at present with no Windows Phone devices heading into the realms of 5-inch displays, likewise Windows 8 tablets with screens 10-inches or smaller.
As The Verge points out, the Windows ‘Blue’ update scheduled to arrive part way through 2013 should help bridge interoperability between the company’s desktop and mobile operating systems, help facilitate the possibility of a Windows Phone 8 Padfone, but for now we’ll have to wait and see what Asus have got up their sleeve.
We reached out to Asus on the matter, but they had no comment at this time
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