14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Xiaomi have announced an expansion of their original collaboration that will help the latter strengthen its offering in a series of markets, including mobile, smart devices, and services.
Specifically, the two companies will collaborate for cloud services, and Xiaomi will use Microsoft Azure for its own data storage, bandwidth, computer and other needs in international markets.
Xiaomi was already using Azure since 2015 when it reached out to Microsoft for cloud support to run 21Vianet in China, which powers its Mi Cloud service for smartphone customers.
Additionally, Microsoft and Xiaomi will work together in the PC market, and the software giant will support Xiaomi’s marketing, channel distribution and product development of new laptops and similar devices. In other words, Microsoft will help Xiaomi make its laptops available to more customers worldwide, so don’t be too surprised if such devices will soon be available in Microsoft Stores.
Xiaomi building a Cortana speaker
Xiaomi will also integrate Cortana with Mi AI speaker, Microsoft said, as the software firm is pushing hard for its digital assistant to become available to more customers worldwide.
And last but not least, Xiaomi and Microsoft will expand their collaboration in several AI technologies, including Computer Vision, Text Input, Conversational Vision, and Speech. Products like Bing, Edge, SwiftKey, and Skype will also benefit from the partnership.
“This in-depth cooperation in AI technologies and products, on top of Xiaomi’s solid experience in smart hardware, big data, and its smart device ecosystem, as well as the significant breakthroughs in core artificial intelligence technologies and products that Xiaomi has achieved, aims to generate even more synergy between hardware and software to enhance the end-user experiences on Xiaomi devices,” Microsoft says.
Microsoft and Xiaomi have been working together since 2016, and in June 2016, the Chinese phone maker agreed to pre-install apps like Office and Skype on its Android phones and tablets sold across the world.