Would You Buy a Windows Phone with “3D Touch”?

It’s no secret that Microsoft has been waging a losing battle when it comes to making Windows Phone a successful mobile platform. A post on Neowin today says that the company is hoping to turn some heads with new hardware – though it’s possible said new hardware might not amount to much more than a gimmick.

According to Neowin, Microsoft is hard at work on two new smartphones equipped with “3D Touch,” a feature that will let users interact with their handsets through close gestures rather than strictly touching the device’s display. One – codenamed Microsoft McLaren – is rumored to have a 5.2-inch, 1080p display, with a 20 megapixel camera and 64GB of internal storage. The other device – no codename offered – will measure a little larger at 6-inches, and could replace the Lumia 1520. Both devices, say the post, will be coming out before the end of the year.

While there’s little reason to doubt the veracity of these reports, I do have to wonder whether or not they’re the right move for Microsoft. When Amazon finally unveiled its Fire Phone earlier this month, we finally got a look at the revolutionary head-tracking, glasses-free 3D that is an integral part of how users will interact with the device. And while it seemed cool, it was far from the kind of feature that would set the world on fire (haha sorry).

Would 3D Touch fare any differently? Would a new, gesture-based interaction method make people more interested in the Windows Phone platform? I’m betting that it won’t, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in seeing the ways that it’s implemented. Maybe 3D Touch will be the next big thing in mobile! Perhaps Microsoft knows exactly what people want out of a non-touching experience! Or, you know, maybe not.

[Source: Neowin]