Is LG planning a return to Windows Phone?

Despite abandoning Windows Phone for Android over the past year, LG could be working on a new device running Windows Phone 8.

LG was one of Microsoft’s original Windows Phone partners, releasing the Optimus 7 and Optimus 7Q back in 2010, but since then the company has concentrated more on its Android efforts. Having ignored Windows Phone for a year or more, LG was subsequently left off Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 partner list.

It’s now looking like LG wants to return to Microsoft’s fold, as according to a report in the Korea Times, it’s busily developing hardware designed to work with Windows Phone 8. The newspaper quotes a senior executive for the firm, who says, “We will release quite a number of new Optimus devices this year and LG also has some new smartphones in the works, that will run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.”

The source of the quote also offered up the news LG is planning to announce a Full HD Galaxy Note 2 challenger during Mobile World Congress 2013, and will hold off releasing the rumored Optimus G2 until later in 2013.

LG has big plans for the coming year, as it has set itself a target of 75 million mobile phone sales in total, with 45 million of those being top-end smartphones. 2012 was something of a comeback year for the company, with the release of the well-received Optimus G and the incredibly popular – but hard to find - Google Nexus 4. It ended up shipping 41 million phones, which although excellent, is still someway off its ambitious 2013 target.

Whether Windows Phone 8 will be a big seller for LG remains to be seen, as despite the success of its Android phones, Nokia and HTC have cornered the Windows Phone market since it made its debut, even edging out Samsung. There’s no information on when we’ll see LG’s first Windows Phone 8 effort, but it seems unlikely it’ll be this side of the summer.