Xiaomi To Start Preinstalling Microsoft’s Apps On Its Phones

Last year it was announced that Microsoft’s apps would come preinstalled on several Android devices, such as those offered by Samsung. Now it looks like for those of you guys planning to buy Xiaomi phones, it seems that Xiaomi devices will come preinstalled with Microsoft’s apps in the future as well.

This follows a deal in which Xiaomi agreed to purchase 1,500 patents from Microsoft. According to the report from The Wall Street Journal, “As part of the agreement, Xiaomi will preload Microsoft Office and Skype—the video-chat app owned by Microsoft—onto some of its devices, including the Mi 5, Mi Max, Redmi Note 3 and Mi 4S.”

However this is more than just beefing up the offerings and features of their phones. Xiaomi’s SVP Wang Xiang revealed that by purchasing these patents, it will allow the company to work towards a wider release of their products, which for the most part has been limited to the Asian region. The company did state before that building a patent portfolio was one of the steps they were taking to bring their phones to the US.

This deal is rather interesting as Microsoft recently announced that they would be scaling back on their operations in the consumer smartphone business, but at the same time by selling and licensing their patents, they ensure that they are still relevant and essential in the mobile scene.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps, Microsoft, Xiaomi