?Microsoft makes Windows 10 Mobile ROM available for Xiaomi Android phones, trying to get some of Android’s mobile market share in China
The release date for Microsoft Windows 10 for desktops, laptops and tablets is set for July 29. However, the Windows 10 Mobile, the smartphone version, will not be released until later this year.
In order to make it big in the Asian market, Microsoft has partnered with a Chinese Xiamoi smartphone user group and released a Windows 10 Mobile ROM for android devices. The Redmond, California, giant has released the windows 10 mobile ROM for Xiaomi Mi4 handset to a select group of power users.
Before this deal, Xiaomi, China’s largest smartphone vendor had been exclusively using MIUI, an Android-based operating system, which had been accused of openly copying Apple’s iOS 7 look.
Chinese blog IT Home cites that Mi4 users can go ahead and download the Windows 10 Mobile Technical Preview ROM. It also reports that the size of the Windows 10 Mobile ROM for Xiaomi Mi4 is 700MB. It installs the Windows 10 Mobile 12562.82 version.
Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive VP of operating systems, announced in March that “a select group of Xiaomi Mi 4 power users will be invited to help test Windows 10 and contribute to its future release later this year. These power users will have the opportunity to download the Windows 10 Technical Preview – installing it and providing their feedback to Microsoft.”
Microsoft aims to receive feedback by making the ROM available for Android users. It wants to go ahead and roll out the ROM for ZTE Nubia 9 and more Android smartphones in the near future.
Microsoft needs all the help that it can get to put Windows into Chinese smartphones. Windows Phone has only 0.8 percent share of the Chinese smartphone market, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. The new deal between Microsoft and Xiaomi is not likely to immediately boost Microsoft’s Chinese mobile market share; however, Microsoft’s intention are clear that it looking to capture a part of Android marketshare for Windows.
Here is video showing the Windows 10 working on Xiaomi Mi 4
Thats good. If Microsoft has to capture the market, they need to introduce such strategies.