Microsoft recently announced Karbonn and Lava as its OEM partners in India for making affordable Windows Phone devices. Now, news comes from the Times of India that Microsoft has waived the licensing fees it charges per phone for these two OEM's. The Redmond giant was also reported to offer a similar bargain to HTC, if they dual booted Windows Phone with Android on their handsets.
Karbonn and Lava, although haven't made any announcements regarding their Windows Phone handsets. But it is expected that we will see low cost Windows phone's in the Indian market soon. The Nokia Lumia 520 is at present the cheapest Windows Phone available here and competes quite favorably with Android smartphones. Plus Microsoft waving off its about $5 to $15 licensing fee per handset would further drive the cost down and push Windows Phone in emerging markets.
It is also being stipulated that both the Indian OEM's alongwith Micromax will probably launch Windows Phone 8.1 handsets which is expected to be announced in April at the company's Build conference. A lot of exciting things are coming to Windows Phone this summer and we will be covering everything. So stay tuned.
