HTC Said To Halt Plans For 5" Windows Phone Handset
Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is closing in on three years old, yet it still holds less than five percent of the global smartphone market share. For a company with as much recognition as this, and as many marketing dollars to spend, that's fairly poor. With Windows Phone 8, the platform is evolving nicely, and the hardware that has shipped with WP8 is certainly commendable. But to see real growth, you need lots of developer support, and moreover, you need the backing of huge players in the hardware game like LG, Samsung, Nokia, Lenovo and HTC.
HTC's hardware is amongst the finest in the industry, but of late, most of HTC's efforts have focused on Android. And it's no shock, given the huge amount of market share that Android has devoured. As Android, Windows Phone and even the iPhone scale to larger screen sizes, it's looking more and more as if the age of the 3.7" smartphone is over. But can Windows Phone truly sit pretty at over 4.5"? According to a new Bloomberg report, HTC was working hard on a 5" Windows Phone product, which would've made it the largest Windows Phone smartphone on the market. But now, it seems as if those plans are going in the garbage bin.
According to a person familiar with the matter, the 5" WP8 product has been scrapped, leaving Windows Phone with no supersized phones in the pipeline. Will any other handset maker step up to the plate and fill the void? Unless Microsoft can hand over some serious cash or reverse this market share trend in a hurry, we're guessing the answer is "no."
HTC's hardware is amongst the finest in the industry, but of late, most of HTC's efforts have focused on Android. And it's no shock, given the huge amount of market share that Android has devoured. As Android, Windows Phone and even the iPhone scale to larger screen sizes, it's looking more and more as if the age of the 3.7" smartphone is over. But can Windows Phone truly sit pretty at over 4.5"? According to a new Bloomberg report, HTC was working hard on a 5" Windows Phone product, which would've made it the largest Windows Phone smartphone on the market. But now, it seems as if those plans are going in the garbage bin.
According to a person familiar with the matter, the 5" WP8 product has been scrapped, leaving Windows Phone with no supersized phones in the pipeline. Will any other handset maker step up to the plate and fill the void? Unless Microsoft can hand over some serious cash or reverse this market share trend in a hurry, we're guessing the answer is "no."
