Microsoft plans on sticking with Qualcomm for Windows Phone chip sets

One of the reasons why some Chinese manufacturers are able to pump out extremely cheap Android handsets, is the low price they pay companies like MediaTek for the CPUs employed on these phones. In China, and some other Asian regions, it is not unusual to find a quad-core powered device selling for the equivalent of $130 USD. The success of the Xiaomi Hongmi (aka the Red Rice) shows that there is demand for low priced value phones.

While Microsoft recently launched an OEM portal to allow small-time producers to manufacture Windows Phone handsets, Microsoft wants to keep the performance of these phones at a certain level. That makes sense, right? If you're McDonald's, you don't award a franchise to someone who is going to cut corners by using horse meat instead of beef. So that is why it makes perfect business sense for Vineet Durani, head of Microsoft's Windows Phone unit in India, to explain that only Qualcomm silicon is being supported by Windows Phone. "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 the executive.


While that means no octa-core Windows Phone handsets for the time being, by the end of this year Qualcomm will be shipping the Snapdragon 615 and the Snapdragon 810. Both octa-core solutions will be in handsets starting next year. The only downside for Microsoft is that this has allowed some Android manufacturers to already start selling octa-core powered handsets that use the MT-6592 chip from MediaTek. Samsung already uses its octa-core Exynos chip in certain variants of its top-shelf Android phones.

source: TimesOfIndia via WMPoweruser