Sprint to Join the Windows Phone 8 Launch Party

This fall, Microsoft is expected to launch a new flavor of its Windows Phone operating system, and Sprint is one of the wireless carriers which might add devices powered by it to its offering.

This is not the first time when the carrier is said to have such plans, although nothing was specifically announced on the matter.

At the CTIA trade show, Sprint’s director of consumer acquisition, David Owens, reportedly stated that he was “bullish on Apollo.”

This suggests that Windows Phone 8, which sports the codename of Apollo, is one viable option for the wireless carrier.

Sprint already had Windows Phone devices available for its customers, including the HTC Arrive, but did not register success with them.

However, Owens appears convinced that the upcoming OS flavor would be capable to make a difference. He said so at CES in January, and reiterated it at CTIA, PCMag reports.

In January, he also stated that Sprint was considering the launch of new Windows Phones in August-September, which pointed at devices running under the upcoming OS flavor.

For the time being, no official word on devices that would be powered by the next-gen mobile platform from Microsoft has emerged.

Sprint and other wireless carriers also have to make formal announcements on any plans to add such handsets to their networks.

At the moment, Windows Phone is trailing popular mobile OSes such as Android, iOS and BlackBerry, but started to gain some more ground after Nokia launched smartphones powered by it.

Moreover, Microsoft and its partners have been focused on packing new devices with the latest advancements in the mobile industry, such as support for 4G LTE networks (AT&T already launched three such devices).

Windows Phone 8 should raise the bar higher still. It was rumored to deliver support for better hardware, including multi-core application processors that power today’s most popular Android devices (Apple’s iPhone also features a multi-core chip inside).

This means that Sprint’s upcoming Windows Phone lineup could include dual-core phones capable of connecting to its LTE network as well, thus proving much more appealing than HTC Arrive did.