At the Computex 2014 keynote, Microsoft showed off new smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1, manufactured by their new partners. This includes, Prestigio, BLU, YEZZ, InFocus. All these devices are based on Qualcomm reference design. Microsoft announced new OEMs at the MWC 2014 back in February and added couple more OEMs to the list at the Build 2014 in April. Recently the company announced BLU and Amagatarai K-Touch as their partners. New Windows Phone devices from new manufacturers is expected to increase the market share of Windows Phone.
BLU would launch a 5-inch device running on Windows Phone 8.1. Complete specifications of the device is not available yet. It is expected to launch in the U.S, Europe and Latin America by this month. The Prestigio MultiPhone 8400 DUO and the MultiPhone 8500 DUO are powered by 1.2 GHz quad-core processors, have a 8-megapixel rear cameras with LED flash and come with Dual SIM support.
The Prestigio MultiPhone 8400 DUO has a 4.0-inch (480×800 pixels) IPS display, features a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera in addition to a 8-megapixel rear camera. The Prestigio MultiPhone 8500 DUO 5.0-inch (720×1280 pixels) IPS display with Corning Gorilla glass protection, 1 GB RAM, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, in addition to a 8-megapixel rear camera.
Regarding these two devices, Siarhei Kostevitch, founder and CEO of ASBIS group and Chairman of Prestigio, said,
Our Windows-based MultiPhones that will be shown at Computex are a new step to expanding the opportunities of Prestigio customers. There’s nothing better than dealing with a rich choice, so we are doing our best to provide this with our new partnership.
The MultiPhone 8500 DUO would go on sale in July 2014 at US$235 and the MultiPhone 8400 DUO would go on sale in August 2014 at US$115. These phones would come in Black and White colors.
The Yezz Billy 4.7 (named after Bill Gates), that was already unveiled earlier this month has a 4.7-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) OGS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection, powered by a quad-core Snapdragon processor and features a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash. It would also come with dual SIM support, 3G HSPA+ connectivity. It comes in red, white and blue colors and is priced at US$249. It would roll out in the U.S., Europe and Latin America starting from this month.
InFocus based in China would also unveil a range of affordable LTE phones in varying sizes soon. Other ODMs such as BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron would showcase prototype phones at the Computex.