Xiaomi and Microsoft collaborating?

Windows 10 is currently being tested on the Xiaomi Mi4 (as per Engadget and ArsTechnica). Xiaomi recently opened a US store, but doesn't sell any smartphones in it due to the US intellectual property law issues with their OS, MIUI. Microsoft hasn't been doing much with developing new hardware (except entry-level devices) since they acquired Nokia's smartphone division. Seems to me that both companies would benefit from Xiaomi flagships running Windows 10 being sold on the US market. A Mi Note running Win10 could be a huge shot in the arm for the Windows Phone ecosystem, and it'd form an IP-lawsuit-free beachhead for Xiaomi in North America.

Do you think we'll see this, or is it just a series of unrelated events?

 

A large screen unlocked Smartphone at a reasonable price could actually get me to consider a Windows 10 Phone. *Consider* being the key word.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "collaboration." If Xiaomi wants to build a Windows phone, then they can, just like anyone else stupid enough to do so can. It doesn't require a whole lot of input from Microsoft. "IP-lawsuit-free beachhead for Xiaomi" and exposure at Microsoft stores is all there really is to say about benefits to Xiaomi. Huawei has had some Windows phones on the Chinese market, but they have all bombed. If it doesn't run iOS or a de-Googled Android with pirated app stores, it isn't going to sell in China.

 

And that seems like a big deal to me. Xiaomi can't offer Google-ified Android on US-market phones so long as it's offering the MIUI fork anywhere in the world. And Apple's lawyers would lay into MIUI on the US market like a pack of starving wolves devouring a wounded moose. So Xiaomi's options are:

(1) Sell MIUI phones in Asia and don't sell smartphones on the US market.
(2) Sell google-ified Android phones in all markets worldwide.
(3) Sell MIUI phones in Asia and Windows 10 phones in the US market.

I have trouble believing that they want to continue with (1) because they've just entered the US market with their other products. I have trouble believing that they want to do (2) because MIUI is doing great in markets where the IP laws are more favorable to Xiaomi. So (3) seems likely. Even if they only ever capture 3%-5% of the US market, they can do so with almost no cost to them (Microsoft would handle all the software side) and with no impairment to their already-successful Asian operations that use MIUI.

 

The only reason to use Windows would be the office suite. And that is being brought to Android anyhow ( I know I'm a dev/tester of it). Unfortunately at this point in time it doesn't support Android 5.0, but it will probably be out for the rest of you this summer.