Microsoft and Xiaomi announced the expansion of their initial partnership that will help the latter strengthen its offering in a range of markets, including mobile, smart devices and services.
Specifically, the two companies will collaborate on cloud services, and Xiaomi will use Microsoft Azure for data storage, IT needs, and other needs in international markets.
Xiaomi had already been 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 collaborate in the PC market, with the software giant supporting the marketing, channel distribution, and product development of new Xiaomi laptops and similar devices. In other words, Microsoft will help Xiaomi spread its laptops to more customers around the world, so don't be surprised if such devices are soon available in Microsoft Stores.
Xiaomi will also integrate Cortana with its Mi AI speaker, Microsoft said, as the software company tries to push the digital assistant to more and more customers worldwide.
Finally, Xiaomi and Microsoft will expand their collaboration to multiple 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 collaboration on AI technologies and products, in addition to Xiaomi’s solid experience in smart hardware, big data, and its smart device ecosystem, has also helped Xiaomi leverage the significant breakthroughs in core AI technologies and products to create even more collaboration between hardware and software to improve 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 Android phones and tablets sold around the world.
