From Google News

How best to boost Microsoft's struggling Windows Phone platform? How about attaching it to an Android-based device?

That's an idea being floated by Microsoft, according to a Friday report from Bloomberg. The news service says Microsoft OS chief Terry Myerson has asked HTC to add Windows Phone as a second operating system option on phones that currently run Google's Android.

To sweeten the deal, Microsoft has reportedly offered to drop the licensing fee it would normally require handset makers to pay in order to load the mobile OS on their phones. Nothing has been agreed upon; Myerson will reportedly pitch HTC execs in Taiwan this month.

HTC has released several Windows Phone-based devices, after promising in Sept. 2012 to "go big" on the Microsoft OS. That includes the HTC 8X, 8S, and 8XT (above), which landed on Sprint in July. But as HTC struggles in a marketplace dominated by Samsung and Apple, it likely can't afford to back Windows Phone-based devices if they are producing limited returns. According to Bloomberg, HTC has no current plans for another Windows Phone device; it's currently focusing on its flagship, Android-based HTC One.

It's not all gloom and doom for Windows Phone. The Microsoft platform has managed to make gains - particularly in Europe - but its market share still pales in comparison to that of iOS or Android.

Complicating the matter is the fact that Microsoft recently acquired Nokia's handset business, so phone makers might be hesitant to go all in if they believe Microsoft is focusing its energy on Nokia - much like the concern that arose after Google bought Motorola Mobility.

The details about how the Android-Windows hybrid OS would work have yet to be ironed out. It's an approach that has already been implemented in the tablet/laptop hybrid space. At the IFA trade show, for example, Asus unveiled the Transformer Book Trio, which lets you switch between Windows 8 and Android 4.2. The Samsung Ativ Q, unveiled earlier this summer, does the same thing.

In July, Canonical tried to raise $32 million for a limited-edition smartphone known as the Ubuntu Edge, which would have run the open-source Ubuntu OS but also booted into Android. It failed to reach its goal on the crowd-funding site, but other Ubuntu OS phones are expected in the future.