Microsoft says HTC prepares "new things", the Windows Phone-based W8 might be one of them

Microsoft today reaffirmed that its relationship with HTC is a “great” one, despite the fact that the Taiwanese company hasn’t been very involved with the Windows Phone scene lately (releasing only one WP device last year, and none this year thus far).

Nick Parker, Microsoft's vice president of OEM partners, reportedly confirmed that “new things” from HTC are coming. According to CNET, Parker talked about HTC at a Microsoft press conference held at Computex 2014 today. Unfortunately, details on exactly what we should expect from HTC haven’t been unveiled - but we guess that we’re going to see new Windows Phone 8.1 hardware.

A couple of days ago, we heard about a so called HTC W8, which is supposed to be released by Verizon Wireless in the third quarter of the year. Reportedly, the W8 runs Windows Phone 8.1, featuring a metal design, BoomSound speakers, and a Duo rear camera. We assume that this is included in the new things that Microsoft was telling us to expect from HTC.

For the moment, we don’t know if the HTC W8 will be a Verizon-exclusive handset. However, if that’s the case, HTC will probably want to launch a Windows Phone 8.1 device for the rest of the world, too. But we'll see what happens later this year.

P.S.: the smartphone pictured above is the HTC 8X from 2012.