14 DAY TRIAL // Some months ago rumors surfaced about a version of the Meizu MX4 Pro smartphone, which didn't run the company’s own Flyme OS onboard.
Back in October, a bunch of leaked photographs revealed the smartphone might come equipped with YunOS 3.0 (short for AliyunOS) which is a Linux-based platform developed by Chinese e-Commerce behemoth, Alibaba.
The device was said to boast a 5.36-inch display with 2,560 x 1,536 pixel resolution, an Exynos 5430 chipset by Samsung and a worthy 20.7MP Sony camera.
Alibaba and Meizu solidify partnership
Now a report coming out of Reuters reveals that the Chinese retail giant will be investing $590 / €520 million in Meizu, in an attempt at breaching the overly saturated mobile market in the country.
Meizu currently takes up only 2% of China’s smartphone business, with companies like Xiaomi eating the bigger slice of the pie. Other competitors like Huawei, Lenovo, Apple and Samsung are also big presences in Asia and are not making it easier for Meizu to expand its grasp.
Alibaba will be acquiring an unspecified minority stake with the company, offering Meizu a bunch of benefits in the process. The smartphone maker will be allowed unlimited access to Alibaba’s vast chain of e-commerce sales channels and more.
Given the fact that Alibaba is sitting on $213 / €187 market value, the retail giant’s willingness to invest $590 / €520 in Meizu doesn't translate into much.
Meizu's business is slowly growing
Meizu’s business, on the other hand, has been continuously on the rise. For example, the company’s CEO has recently announced that the company managed to ship out 1.5 million handsets in January.
This might not sound like a big deal, considering giants like Apple have sold nearly 75 million iPhones in the last quarter, but it’s still an important increase considering Meizu sold almost 1 million smartphones the month before. Which can be translated into a 50% increase.
We also told you that popular mobile benchmark specialist AnTuTu recently rated Meizu’s MX4 flagship as the most powerful Android smartphone of 2014.
So it seems the company is slowly making its presence felt and with Alibaba’s help things might improve even more.
