Verizon Wireless chief executive Dan Mead (pictured) wants diversity of devices and operating systems, and says he is encouraged by the progress of Windows Phone and BlackBerry in a market that is currently dominated by Android and Apple.

Speaking at an investor conference organised by Jefferies, a broker, Mead was positive about the two smaller eco-systems.

“We have been encouraged by what we see with Windows,” he said. “We certainly think that there is an opportunity for Windows [Phone] 8 to continue to become more important. We think that with the Microsoft position on the PCs that there is a good opportunity there. I think that they have gotten good engagement from OEM manufacturers, they have got good diversity of manufacturers. ”

On BlackBerry, Mead carried on in the same positive vein. “We think that there is an important place for Blackberry [and] we have a lot of Blackberry customers on our network,” he said, pointing to consumer “hunger” for the QWERTY keyboard.

Mead argued that by having more than a couple of dominant smartphone ecosystems, customers not only get a wider choice but operators’ negotiating hands are strengthened when dealing with suppliers.

“Three or four operating systems I think is good for the industry overall and good for us,” said Mead.

The executive’s comments come in the same week that Verizon Wireless was named as the exclusive US supplier of Nokia’s Lumia 928, which is powered by Windows Phone 8.