Despite its attempts at carving its own piece out of the mobile operating system market with Tizen, Samsung remains almost entirely dependent on Android, and the South Korean electronics giant doesn’t like that. According to people within the company, Samsung is looking to expand its Windows Phone offerings in the event that its current legal battle with Microsoft gets resolved.
In a move to cut reliance on Google’s Android mobile operating system, Samsung Electronics is considering releasing cheaper handsets running on Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 platform, sources said Sunday. “Samsung has run pilot programs on the stability of Windows 8.1 software on devices. It is interested in promoting Windows mobiles,” said an official directly involved. But the key issue is whether Samsung and Microsoft will settle their ongoing legal dispute over royalties. “If the companies settle their litigation, then Samsung will manufacture handsets powered by the Microsoft-developed mobile platform,” the official said. “The timing could be the third quarter of this year at the earliest.” The move comes as Samsung’s handsets with the Tizen platform, which Samsung and Intel have been developing jointly, have not drawn strong support from content developers.
