Microsoft partner Nokia reticent on Windows Phone 8 plans

HTC and Huawei pledge support for Windows Phone 8 devices, but Nokia declines to comment

Following Microsoft's sneak peek at its next smartphone platform last night, vendors including HTC and Huawei have already declared their intention to have handsets ready when the platform ships. However, Microsoft partner Nokia is more reticent about its plans.

Microsoft confirmed long-standing rumours regarding its smartphone plans when it disclosed during a Windows Phone Summit event on Wednesday that Windows Phone 8 will be based on the NT kernel, as used in desktop and server versions of Windows.

The move is expected to bring better support for multi-core processing to phones, as well as make it easier for developers to build apps that will run on both Windows phones and the Metro environment on Windows 8 PCs.

Among the first vendors offering support is Huawei, which said it is working with Microsoft to build its first ever Windows handset based on Windows Phone 8.

"We're very excited about this relationship with Microsoft which will enable us to provide our customers with a bigger array of Huawei smartphone choices," said Huawei chief marketing officer Shao Yang.

Known as the Huawei Ascend, the handset is expected to be available in Europe, China and the United States, with other markets to follow, although Huawei declined to detail when the smartphone will be available.

HTC, one of the first vendors to deliver Windows Phone 7 devices, pledged its continued support for the Microsoft platform and said it will bring Windows Phone 8 smartphones to market later this year.

"HTC is committed to Windows Phone more than ever and we are excited to be bringing new Windows Phone 8-enabled smartphones to customers later this year," HTC chief Peter Chou said.

However, Nokia, Microsoft's premier partner on the Windows Phone platform, declined to confirm or deny any plans for Windows Phone 8 devices to follow its current Lumia range.

A spokesperson for the Finnish handset maker told V3 that the firm "doesn't comment on speculation with regards to future devices that have not been released".

Some analysts have indicated that Microsoft's disclosure of Windows Phone 8 will have a negative impact on sales of current handsets, especially Nokia's, because users will not be able to upgrade these devices to the new platform.

"Operators and users will hold on until the new devices are in the market this coming autumn. This will have a serious impact on Nokia's financial performance this quarter as the company relies strongly on Windows Phone as the main platform for its smartphones," said Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

Samsung was also listed by Microsoft, but the firm has yet to confirm details of its Windows Phone 8 handset to V3.