All Windows Phones, past and present, use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. Indeed, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made an appearance at Qualcomm"s CES 2013 event to speak of the tight partnership between the two companies.
But that doesn"t mean Microsoft is exclusively tied to Qualcomm for future Windows Phone hardware deals. Computerworld reports that Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager for Windows Phone, left the door open for Intel to also provide processors for its smartphones.
When asked if Intel chips would run inside future Windows Phone products, Sullivan said simply, "We have nothing to announce at this time." He added, "Our architecture is such that it"s hardware independent. For the same reason that Windows 8 [tablets] could run on "Wintel", right now Windows Phone is on Qualcomm. We have a portable OS architecture."
Sullivan also talked in general terms about sales of Windows Phone products, saying that they are "selling like hotcakes in China" at the moment. The article speculates that that sales bump could provide an even bigger reason to use Intel chips in the future as their processors could be cheaper than those provided by Qualcomm.
At CES 2013 this week, Intel talked about their "Lexington" platform for smartphone processors, which will be based off an Atom Z2420 chip. The processor is being made for low cost smartphones in emerging markets.
Source: Computerworld | Image via Intel