Microsoft reportedly considers letting consumers pick a device and then its OS: Windows Phone or Android

We’ve already heard rumors that Microsoft has courted smartphone OEMs to offer dual-boot options for Windows Phone and Android, as well as looked at cutting the licensing fees that it normally charges device makers. Another tactic the company has reportedly considered is letting consumers pick one or the other after they select a given device in store, according to internal documents obtained by The Information.

All these strategies are part of a bigger attempt to take on Google’s mobile operating system, which the majority of smartphones worldwide currently ship with. Unsurprisingly, letting consumers choose their OS after they pick a device isn’t very easy to do (technical hurdles for the OEMs and marketing issues for carriers), and in the document Microsoft representatives reportedly admitted that such a scenario wasn’t close to becoming a reality. One way the company reportedly might achieve its goal would be aligning Windows Phone’s hardware requirements with the ones Google mandates for Android phones.

We’ve contacted Microsoft for more information and will update this post if we hear back. Update: Microsoft unsurprisingly declined to comment.

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