Not long ago, Huawei’s Chief Marketing Officer made what appeared to be tell-tale comments regarding the company’s device plans. Shao Yang said a dual-boot device was coming from Huawei, and would arrive to the US in the second quarter of this year. Huawei is tip-toeing away from those comments, and now say no such device is in the works, nor do they plan on making one.
Huawei does admit they intended to release a dual-booting device in the past, as late as February of this year. That could have been the issue for Yang, as his commentary was likely referencing a device he wasn’t aware had been fully shelved. Huawei gave no real reason for the about-face on a dual-booting device, but told Fierce Wireless “most of our products are based on Android OS, [and] at this stage there are no plans to launch a dual-OS smartphone in the near future.”
Huawei won’t say why a dual-boot device was cancelled, but it’s clear neither Google or Microsoft are fans of the concept. Both have, in their way, promised to thwart any device that has both operating systems on board. Microsoft has changed policy on support for those kinds of devices, while Google just plain won’t accept them for GApps.
Huawei is saying they’ll release both Windows and Android devices this year, but no plans for a dual-booting handset are on the horizon. Asus ran into similar trouble earlier this year when they planned to launch another dual-booting device. Google and Microsoft reportedly pressured them to drop those plans, and they did — along with halting sale of exisitng dual-booting machines.
