After Microsoft announced on their blog
post that Windows
10 will release this summer, the company also added that it is working
with Chinese handset maker Xiaomi to offer some customers a test version
of Windows 10 on their smartphones.
Microsoft wrote said that, it will help a
select group of Xiaomi Mi4 users ‘flash’ their phones with the new Windows 10
OS on their handsets and let them contribute to its future release later this
year. These users will then use Windows 10 on their Mi4 devices and
provide valuable feedback. Xiaomi stresses that this is not a partnership but
an initiative. This move portrays Microsoft’s new platform through a unique approach,
points out TechCrunch.
As the company uses the word ‘flash’ here, it
indicates that Microsoft will offer a ROM, similar to custom ROMs like
CyanogenMod, to install their OS on the Android smartphone. Microsoft will
deliver Windows 10 ROM for Mi 4 users with a software that helps convert an
Android phone into a Windows 10 phone, complete with access to all Microsoft
services, added the report.
But the bigger news is that Microsoft will
soon be rolling out this feature out to other devices as well.
With this move, Microsoft could attract many
Android users to Windows 10, without having the need to to purchase another
phone. Microsoft also added in their blog that China is an ideal market
for testing such an initiative, given the region’s relative lack of lock-in to
Google services and a general affinity towards custom ROMs.
The availability for Windows 10 on Xiaomi
Mi 4 will be announced in a few months.
