Windows Phone version of HTC One M8 might be happening after all

If recent leaks are to be believed, we might soon see a new HTC One M8 running Windows Phone 8.1.  PCMag got a tip off about the Taiwanese maker’s plans of Microsoft-blessed M8 with the HTC Duo Camera, VoLTE and HTC BoomSound speakers.

This is definitely not the first instance of HTC adopting the Windows Phone OS. Earlier, the company had introduced HTC Windows Phone 8X, 8S, and 8XT to the market. In fact, all of HTC ’s initial phones actually ran Microsoft’s Windows Mobile (as it was then called). However, HTC’s Android smartphones always had an edge over Windows Phone-based smartphones. While we don’t expect that to change with the new One M8, there’s lots to look forward to this time. Compared with the previous versions of Windows Phone, the 8.1 version is a lot more polished and includes useful new features such as a-voice assistant called Cortana and better multitasking abilities.

Last year, Microsoft’s Terry Myerson reportedly asked HTC to add Windows Phone as a second operating system option on devices that run Google’s Android. However, that never panned out and eventually HTC didn’t release any device after the first batch.

The HTC One M8 was one of the best Android smartphones we’ve seen, from a performance and design point of view. It remains a solid contender, despite there being some niggling worries with the camera. It would be interesting to see if HTC can recreate the same magic with Windows Phone, if at all there’s one. We are also interested to see what happens to BlinkFeed and whether it will make the transition to WP 8.1 as a separate app or homescreen-like experience.

HTC has announced an event on August 19, which is strongly being linked to the Windows Phone launch. Guess we won’t have to wait too long to find out.