For Windows Phone Microsoft is “highly committed to Qualcomm hardware”

Speaking to the Times of India, Vineet Durani, who heads Windows Phone division in Microsoft in India, said that Microsoft had no plans to support chipsets other than Qualcomm’s.

"We don’t have any plans to explore chipsets (processors and RAM etc) made by others… At this point of time companies making Windows Phone have to use the Qualcomm hardware," said Durani. "I can’t comment on the future but I can say that we are highly committed to Qualcomm hardware. Qualcomm is a great partner and I don’t see any reason to look at anybody else right now because the objective really is to push out great devices… affordable devices and we feel that we can do it with the Qualcomm hardware."

Microsoft has recently opened up Windows Phone for free to low cost OEMs like LAVA who traditionally use MediaTek chipsets. Microsoft however insisted despite this they still insist on devices being performant.

"The only difference (from Android ecosystem) is that we require certain level of hardware performance for a Windows Phone device. We have licensing agreements with Chinese ODMs and (local) companies can directly approach the ODMs to get Windows Phone devices. They don’t even have to talk to Microsoft India," said Durani.

He said that hardware requirements are to make sure that Windows Phone users get a good experience. "Because you are adhering to a certain set of specifications, the performance of all Windows Phone devices is at a level that is acceptable to us," said Durani.

Do our readers agree with Microsoft’s strategy, or will it hurt Windows Phone in the medium term? Let us know below.