Rumors of HTC stepping back into the Windows Phone market have been circulating for quite some time now, but having heard nothing from either company in a while, it’s hard to believe they are anything more than rumors.
To keep the rumor alive, @evleaks has shown off a rather convincing shot of the HTC W8, the Windows Phone for 2014. The phone looks an awful lot like the HTC One (M8), the company’s Android flagship for this year.
We did hear HTC was planning minimal changes on the design on the HTC W8, content on sticking to the same strategy that has won them millions of fans on Android. This could work out, considering past HTC devices have been reviewed highly from a design standpoint.
The HTC W8 looks to keep some of HTC’s new features, like the Duo Camera and front facing speakers. Windows Phone isn’t as open as Android, meaning HTC will have to develop a separate camera app alongside the default app, they will also have to stick to Microsoft’s mobile OS and no skins are allowed.
Back in 2013, both Samsung and HTC dropped Windows Phone out of their lineup, considering the amount of market share the third placed OS had at the time and how little revenue the phones were making for both companies.
Incentives from Microsoft and growth on Windows Phone may have pushed at least one of the two Asian manufacturers back to Windows Phone, but it looks like the HTC W8 will be more of a copy than an actual fleshed out product.
Nokia is out of the picture when it comes to being a competitor on Windows Phone, they are now a first-party manufacturer for Microsoft and to make sure they aren’t the only one, Microsoft is looking for more manufacturers to come back and help them grow out Windows Phone 8.1.
