News out of CES is that companies such as Intel, Asus and AMD are offering devices that boot both the Windows Phone and Android operating systems.
Microsoft planted the seeds with an internal document earlier this year, detailing ways for Windows Phone and Android to coexist on the same hardware.
The document talks about scenarios such as eliminating licensing fees for OEMs running Windows Phone, letting users make an in-store decision of Android or Windows Phone, or even a device that switches between the two OSes simultaneously.
While pundits wondered why in the world a user would want both Windows Phone and Android on the same device, at least one company has seen a benefit. Intel announced its dual OS platforms Monday that can toggle between Windows and Android with the push of a button.
What’s the advantage for users? According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, “You don’t have to make a choice going forward. You can have both,” he said during his keynote at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday.
Still seems like a flimsy reason to stuff two OSes together, doing the same things and that serve no benefit for each other by coexisting on the same device. But Intel isn’t the only company to jump on the bandwagon.
Asus announced the Transformer Book Duet TD300 Monday, a convertible laptop/tablet hybrid that can dual boot between Windows 8.1 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Soon after, AMD announced a partnership with BlueStacks to bring “the full Android OS experience” to Windows PCs.
Arguments for dual booting have pointed out that a number of games on Android are not available on Windows Phone, and that it would stop Google from blocking services such as Google Drive, Gmail and YouTube on Windows Phone.
Either way, three companies announcing the capability prove the dual boot isn’t a fluke. The question is whether a device running Windows and Android is necessary in the least.
