14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Xiaomi announced back in March that they had teamed up to offer Mi4 owners the option to install Windows 10 Mobile Technical Preview on their Android handsets. At the time, the two companies made a point of clarifying that they weren’t engaging in a partnership but in a mere experiment.
But what are the boundaries of this experiment for Microsoft? Will the Redmond giant limit itself to just Xiaomi? A tweet from the company’s General Manager of OSG Data and Fundamentals team might seem to suggest that Microsoft is open to finding ways to get Windows 10 running on more Android devices.
A Twitter user asked about the possibility of Android phone owners being given the option to switch their pre-installed OS to Windows Mobile, and Aul answered by saying that Xiaomi was already offering this option for the Mi4 device.
However, he concluded the intervention by saying, “no news on other devices at this time.” So given that we’ve already seen the Xiaomi Mi4 experiment go live, we could dare and speculate that, at some point, Microsoft might be interested in partnering up with other OEMs in order to try and make Windows 10 available for their Android devices. After all, Aul does say that there’s no news on the topic “at this time,” which leaves plenty of room for interpretation.
Windows 10 Mobile might become available for other Android devices
Take into account that this is just pure speculation at this point and Microsoft might draw the line at Xiaomi and never look back. But on the other hand, this seems pretty hard to believe.
The convergence between Microsoft’s Windows, Android and iOS is already on the horizon. For example, Microsoft has been releasing individual apps like Cortana, One Drive and Office on iOS and Android, and there’s also a Windows 10 Phone Companion app somewhere in the pipeline.
On top of that, Microsoft is making it easier for developers to port their Android apps to Windows Phone, starting out with simpler ones. So everything pinpoints towards Redmond getting cozier and cozier with Android.
So, if you had your way, which Android OEM would you prefer to see strike a Xiaomi-like deal with Microsoft?
@GabeAul heard that Microsoft has plans to let android running phones to change os to windows mobile.Will it come to all android phones?
— arjun (@RSARJUN) June 23, 2015
@RSARJUN We're working on this with Xiaomi for the Mi4 device, but no news on other devices at this time. http://t.co/e3nzm2ixIF
— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) June 23, 2015