From Google News

Imagine the HTC One with Windows, not Android.

(Credit: CNET)

Microsoft is offering inexpensive or even free Windows Phone licenses to try to persuade HTC to once again sell phones using the operating system, Bloomberg reported Friday.

HTC, the company that built the first Android phone and that now is touting its HTC One, sold Windows Phone models in the past. But it has no current plans to sell any more, the Bloomberg report said.

Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's operating systems division, presented a proposal to HTC in September that offered to cut or even eliminate Windows Phone license fees, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. Myerson is scheduled to discuss it further this month on a trip to Asia, it said.

One big sticking point no doubt will be that Microsoft, by acquiring Nokia's mobile-phone business, aspires to become a direct competitor to HTC. On the other hand, Android maker Google already is one with its Motorola division.

Microsoft has struggled to overhaul its business for a more mobile industry that's much broader than just PCs. Windows Phone hasn't caught on widely in the smartphone market compared to the top dogs, iOS and Android, and Windows 8, although optimized for tablets, alienated many by introducing a very different interface.

The company is changing dramatically, however, by becoming a hardware company. Its first major effort was the Surface tablets, due to be replaced by second-generation Surface and Surface Pro models on Oct. 22.

HTC is also having difficulties, though. With troubles delivering the HTC One and HTC One Mini, HTC reported a quarterly loss on Thursday, its first since it went public in 2002.