Microsoft Windows Phone 8 Reference Design Arriving This Year?

The good people over at Digitimes, who has had a track record of rumors which were spotty at best with its fair share of hits and misses, did mention that there is a possibility of Microsoft working on a Windows Phone 8 reference design alongside chipset vendors Qualcomm, with the whole idea behind this move to attract additional smartphone OEMs in China. The new smartphone OEMs will, of course, have to use Windows Phone 8 as the operating system of choice, where these new handsets will target both the entry-level and mid-range smartphone markets not only in China but in other emerging markets to boot.

The Windows Phone 8 reference design is expected to be released sometime in the middle of this year, and the final hardware will be released before 2013 is over. Apart from Qualcomm, MediaTek has also been quoted to be part of the team with Microsoft when it comes to developing the reference design. Do you think these companies will be able to do a better job compared to Samsung and Nokia?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Microsoft, Windows Phone 8