Samsung Ativ Q

SOFTWARE HOUSE Microsoft reportedly is in talks with HTC about adding the Windows Phone mobile operating system to its Android based smartphones.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that Microsoft's head of operating systems Terry Myerson has asked the Taiwanese phone maker to load Windows Phone onto its Android powered handsets, at little or no cost at all. This is an attempt to drag HTC back into the Windows Phone ecosystem, Bloomberg's sources claim, with the firm seemingly having dropped Microsoft's mobile operating system following disappointing sales of the HTC 8X and HTC 8S handsets.

It's unclear how Microsoft's plan would work, but it's likely that users will either have the option to run both Android and Windows Phone simultaneously, much like Samsung's Ativ Q laptop, or will be able to select one of them as default.

If Microsoft's idea goes ahead as planned, it could see the launch of an HTC One or HTC One Mini variant capable of dual-booting both Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating systems.

Microsoft reportedly is also looking to sign up new partners for the Windows Phone mobile operating system, although with Nokia, Samsung, ZTE and Huawei already onboard it's unclear what other phone maker(s) the firm is going after.

HTC has yet to respond to our request for comment, but we're guessing that it has other things on its plate at the moment. Microsoft has not confirmed the rumours. µ