Microsoft is looking to follow the Google model to provide the most inexpensive operating system for new smartphones. By removing licensing fees and restrictions on small handsets and tablets, Microsoft hopes to allow buyers access to ultra-inexpensive devices using its Windows operating system. While this may get more device manufacturers making Windows Phones, there are some questions whether this strategy will actually be successful.

The Android OS spread quickly because Google allows anyone to use the bare bones of the platform for free. This has allowed venders such as Xiaomi and Micromax to crank out cheap Android handsets in emerging markets. These devices have high quality specs, but generate razor-thin margins for the manufacturers. Many of these cheap handsets don’t have access to Android essentials such as Google Play, but this loss doesn’t matter to many buyers who want an ultra-affordable device.

Microsoft has observed how Android has thrived under these conditions and is now looking into new policies aimed at getting manufacturers to churn out cheap Windows-based smartphones, tablets and PCs. Microsoft has dumped licensing fees for all Windows devices with displays of 9 inches or lower, it’s “removed restrictions and requirements that made it difficult for Android device makers to use their handsets with Windows Phone too” and it’s made it possible to run Windows on low-end hardware. The biggest issue is whether consumers actually want to buy Windows Phones at all.

“We have tried using the Windows Phone OS,” Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business division explained to The Wall Street Journal. “But it has been difficult to persuade consumers to buy a Windows phone. It wasn’t profitable for us.”

While Windows Phone is a very nice operating system, Microsoft hasn’t provided consumers a reason to use it, other than saying it’s an alternative to iOS and Android. Microsoft can flood the market with dirt-cheap products, but needs to answer questions about why customers should buy into the mobile operating system.