Qualcomm’s reign on Windows Phone chipsets is soon to end, as ST-Ericsson have teamed up with Nokia to deliver new Windows Phones with their NovaThor platform on the inside. ST-Ericsson claim that their technology would help bring WP devices to new markets and price points.
As The Verge points out, the NovaThor line-up currently consist only of dual-core chipsets, which don’t exactly fit with the statement that they will be bringing it to new price points. The ST-Ericsson chips will no doubt have to go head-to-head with Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon series three chips that have already presented themselves in several Android devices, such as the HTC Sensation.
In case you’re wondering when you might be seeing dual-core Windows Phones, it’s still somewhat far down the track as rumors would have it. You’ll probably have to wait until Windows Phone “Apollo”, currently is slated for a 2012 release, which will support dual-cores with Windows Phone chassis 3. At this stage it looks like ST-Ericsson will be only delivering their chipsets to Nokia, so bad luck if you’re after one in your next HTC or Samsung device.
Oh, and for those people wondering, ST-Ericsson is a joint venture between STMicroelectronics and Ericsson; they are not the same company as phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson.