Windows Phone has not brought profits to Microsoft, claims Chinese smartphone maker Huawei.
“We didn’t make money on Windows Phone,” Huawei’s Joe Kelly told the Seattle Times in a recent interview. “Nobody made money on Windows Phone.”
This isn't the first time Huawei has had harsh words for Microsoft 's mobile operating system . Earlier this year, the Chinese company canceled its plans to develop new Windows Phone devices, saying that even with deep discounts from Microsoft, working with the platform simply wasn't worth the cost.
“The biggest problem is that Windows is not easy to independently develop on this platform,” Huawei told El Reg in September. “The costs for Windows are quite high compared to the cost of sales.”
That's saying something, considering that Microsoft has literally been giving away the operating system in an effort to garner more support from device manufacturers.
Lately, Microsoft has had some success with its cheap-N-cheerful Lumia phone for a small segment of the market, but sales of Windows Phone devices have never caught up with sales of iThings and Android.
Huawei also faces other sales challenges. In particular, it has been “blocked” from the US market due to concerns that its products contain backdoors that allow spying by the Chinese government. In practice, this means it has been denied access to about 30% of the global smartphone market .
Microsoft, meanwhile, continues to develop Windows Phone for its Lumia, which it now sells under its own brand rather than Nokia's.
It's not known what the company has planned for the next version of its mobile operating system, but there are rumors that it may be planning to remove the term "Phone" from the next version and simply call its entire operating system "Windows." This is likely a way to increase sales.
