Piggyback: Winning tack for Nook and Windows Phone?

If you can’t beat ’ em join ’ em. For years, companies that have found themselves in second or third place behind market leaders have pushed bravely to create their own versions of the Apple or Android models — either by tightly integrating hardware and services, or by working with partners to develop a new spin, says CNET. But recent moves by Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have tried a new tack — piggybacking on established hardware without requiring any modification. Microsoft did this by working with HTC and getting Windows Phone running on the flagship HTC One M8, five months after that smartphone debuted with Android on it. Hackers have a long history of getting Android running on Windows Phones. But the HTC One M8 for Windows, as it’s called, is of course bona fide, offering full support of such features as HTC’s BoomSound and its Duo camera. Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, decided to stop butting its head against stronger competitors in the tablet hardware business. Instead, it has partnered with Samsung to produce the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. As with Windows Phone on the HTC One M8, nothing differentiates the product from a standard Galaxy Tab 4 except software. So. Two companies that have struggled in a gadget category have slid into a new skin.