ZTE has said it will keep away from Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s OS for mobile phones, and will stick to Google’s Android in its phones.
The Chinese phone maker cited low market demand for the decision.
ZTE’s UK director of mobile device operations Wu Sa said that ZTE had been testing Windows Phone 7 phones, but they had no immediate plans to launch a product. The company would stick to Android for now.
Sa said that Microsoft has to step up its efforts to respond to market needs and lower costs.
Sa said, ‘We anticipate that Microsoft will respond more effectively to market needs in terms of user experience [and] in terms of cost," he said.
Sa added that the company may use the latest Microsoft platform on its phones provided there is a market demand for it.
"We have active R&D plans on the whole Windows Phone 7 platform product. Whether we expedite that process will be driven by the market demand," said Sa.
In February this year, Nokia had announced a software partnership with Microsoft and said that it would adopt Windows Phone software for its devices, but a few days after the announcement, Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila said Nokia Windows phones will be on the stores from 2012 raising doubts over the use of the OS.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who defended the deal saying Nokia will get billions of dollars from Microsoft, has mostly referred to the adoption as Windows Phone – and not Windows Phone 7. Elop has also refused to commit a date for the introduction of Nokia Windows Phones, saying only that Nokia expects to ship them in 2012.
At the Mobile Congress this year, Google said that Nokia made a wrong choice by going for a partnership with Microsoft, and that it would welcome Nokia to Android should they reconsider in the future.
