Don’t expect Windows Mediatek phones this year

The popularity of Windows phones in China will not mean that we will be seeing a low-cost Mediatek Windows phone this year, claims sources in Taiwan.

Mediatek are currently under a lot of pressure from Chinese phone makers and rivals Qualcomm. Local Chinese phone makers are pressing Mediatek to release a SoC with 4G LTE support with many moving over to Qualcomm to supply processors for mid-range LTE phones, rather than wait for the Mediatek solution.

Qualcomm are also currently being chosen by manufacturers of Windows Phones as the OS gains popularity across Asia. This has caused Mediatek to make a difficult choice, do they work on LTE or Windows, it is no surprise then that LTE has won meaning a Mediatek powered Windows Mobile phone isn’t expected this year. The launch of a new 64Bit Mediatek chip is also being blamed for the lack of Windows support.

The news is hardly a blow to most of us here at GizChina, but it does make us wonder want is going to happen to Neo’s plans to release Windows Mobile for their MT6582 powered Neo M1?