HTC releases One M8 Windows Phone
The HTC One M8 comes in three editions now: the stock Android Google Play Edition that most closely resembles a Nexus ROM, the most common HTC Sense 6 version that most of our M8 readers are on, and now the HTC One (M8) for Windows has been released, which includes Live Tiles, Cortana, and everything a Windows phone would have.
The phone appears to be exclusively on Verizon at the moment, and I can’t find anything about whether it’s possible to jump back and forth between Android and Windows ROMs as easily as it is to go between Google Play Edition and Sense 6, but I guess time will tell.
I’ll admit, I’m a bit behind on knowing what can and cannot be done on this particular phone, but it looks like as long as the hardware is the same and the thing is unlockable, we might see ports available for people running either the GPE or Android flavors of the phone. Well, at least on the CDMA networks.
It remains to be seen how well developers can port a closed-source phone OS over, but I imagine it’s at least doable for the Verizon crowd. I’m also not sure of the legality of porting and distributing the Windows ROM as we’re probably not dealing with any open source licensing.
I’m also not seeing any information on this becoming a non-exclusive deal at the moment, so who knows.
What this means for consumers is that the HTC One M8 will probably enjoy a longer production run than the M7 or EVO lines did. With three bases to support, chances are they’re going to support and develop for them a lot longer than several of their throwaway product devices, which unfortunately I’ve been the owner of two.
The HTC One M8 for Windows with Windows 8.1 Update 1 is available now from Verizon for $99 with a two-year agreement.
[HTC]
