Huawei hangs up on Windows Phone development after two years of losses

Chinese smartphone-maker Huawei Technologies is putting Windows Phones development on hold after enduring two years of losses, according to an executive who was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“We have tried using the Windows Phone OS,” said Huawei’s Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s consumer business group. “But it has been difficult to persuade consumers to buy a Windows phone.”

He continued: “It wasn’t profitable for us. We were losing money for two years on those phones. So for now we’ve decided to put any releases of new Windows phones on hold.”

U.S. consumers may not be familiar with the Huawei brand, but the loss of the Chinese handset maker is a big blow to Microsoft. Huawei is the third-largest handset maker in the world, trailing behind Samsung and Apple, according to research firm IDC.

As part of its growth strategy, Huawei will mostly focus on Android. “We have no choice,” he said.

The other platform Huawei won’t be adopting: Tizen, the operating system developed by Samsung and backed by Intel. “We feel Tizen has no chance to be successful. Even for Windows Phone it’s difficult to be successful,” he said.

In the second-quarter, Huawei’s market share rose to 6.9 percent, trailing behind Samsung at 25 percent and Apple at 12 percent, making it the fastest growing handset vendor, according to the WSJ.

hitech.newsru.com