Oppo may make Windows Phone 8 handset
updated 08:37 pm EDT, Tue July 24, 2012
Reputation for no software alteration may help Oppo
Chinese handset manufacturer Oppo is said to be among Microsoft's preferred manufacturers for bringing Windows Phone 8 to the Chinese market. Chinese blog WPDang claims that Microsoft has indicated interest in Oppo, which has a reputation for focusing on solid hardware design instead of altering operating systems with its own custom skin. That reputation plays to Microsoft's goals for the platform, which it would like to see released in the same form across all phones that run it.
Oppo is perhaps best known as the company behind the Finder, an Android 4.0 phone previously dubbed the world's thinnest smartphone. The company tends to tout the toughness of its handsets, and previously showed the .26-inch thick Finder being used to hammer nails into a wooden board (shown below). The Finder featured a skinned version of Android 4.0, but the company is said to be flexible with regard to OS user interfaces.
The report contains no additional details on what sort of handset Oppo would release, or even when any announcement of Oppo's inclusion among Windows Phone manufacturers would be announced. Microsoft has previously identified Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, and HTC as its manufacturing partners for its forthcoming mobile operating system.
