Report: Microsoft Working on Dual-Boot Windows, Android Smartphones

Choosing between Android, iOS, or Windows Phone is a difficult decision for any smartphone user—but what if you had the option to pick two?

A recent article in The Times of India suggests that Microsoft (MSFT) is working with Karbonn Mobiles to launch the first dual-OS smartphones, which will allow users to simultaneously run Google (GOOG) Android and Windows Phone on the same device. Much like the option of being able to choose both soup and a sandwich at Panera Bread, Windows Phone users will have the opportunity to have their Windows Phone with a healthy side of Android to go along with it.

Karbonn Mobiles reportedly signed a licensing deal with Microsoft last week to begin manufacturing Windows phones, which will be integrated with the company’s current lineup of Android devices to create a hybrid Windows-Android smartphone. According to the initial reports, the dual-OS phones aren’t expected to launch until this summer. The Times of India reports that the news came directly from Karbonn Mobiles chairman Sudhir Hasija; however, Microsoft has yet to make a formal announcement as to the release of the dual-OS phones coming to market, and no information about pricing is available.

“Microsoft has eased the regulations and is opening up its platform for other players. We signed the agreement two days ago and will launch a range of Windows phones in about three months,” Hasija told The Times of India. “The dual-OS phones will be out by June, and will target office-going professionals and ‘techies.’”

While the possibility of a dual-boot smartphone is certainly interesting, it is unclear how a smartphone simultaneously running two operating systems would benefit users. Gizmodo sounded off on the news, saying that “You talk, text, email, browse and snap photos and it’s just not clear to us why you’d need to boot into a whole different OS for some marginal benefit in functionality.”

The idea for dual-boot phones has been floating around for a while now, including an app from Canonical that allowed users to simultaneously run Android along with Ubuntu Linux, but it hasn’t caught on in the mainstream as of yet.

It will be interesting to see how the new phones are marketed, even to so-called “techies” who would want a dual-boot OS on their phones. One could speculate that one of the uses for dual-boot smartphones could be to simultaneously utilize business apps that only are available on a particular OS, but that is unlikely the most pressing reason for a dual-boot phone considering that most applications are released for more than one operating system.