Google Should Be Very, Very Afraid

Windows chief Terry Myerson dropped a bomb: Microsoft has partnered with Xiaomi - the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Only two weeks ago at a Windows hardware Engineering Community summit in China, Windows chief Terry Myerson revealed new information about the Windows 10 platform, but much more importantly, at the end of all these announcements, he dropped a bomb: Microsoft has partnered with Xiaomi - the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but number one in China this year, after a long rivalry with Samsung.

So, Windows is coming to Xiaomi. Not all the Android devices, though. Currently only Xiaomi Mi 4 owners are invited to test a custom Windows 10 ROM on their Chinese-made devices, that run Android out of the box, not Windows.

But that isn’t even the biggest deal: Microsoft has created Windows 10 for Android phones, that power Android hardware. Basically, Windows just staged the biggest coup d'etat in technology history: Original manufacturing won’t matter now that Microsoft can turn any handset into a de facto Windows phone.

Basically, Windows just staged the biggest coup d'etat in technology history: Original manufacturing won’t matter now that Microsoft can turn any handset into a de facto Windows phone.

This will literally shake the smartphone world as we know it. Microsoft, who we all perceived as the great, ancient dinosaur of technology, was not in fact taking its dying breath - it was only shapeshifting into a Black Ops agent.

Even better, on Thursday Microsoft announced another long-rumored partnership - this time with Cyanogen, Google’s biggest rival in the Android world. Cyanogen is a customized version of Android that doesn’t use any Google services, such as Google Play Store. It already has a huge audience in China, and is currently growing in other countries where third-party app stores are already.

So what does this all mean? Cyanogen will bundle all of Microsoft’s productivity apps like Skype, Office, Bing and the others onto its devices. Microsoft, meanwhile, will create custom versions of these applications specifically for Cyanogen OS.

Microsoft announced another long-rumored partnership - this time with Cyanogen, Google’s biggest rival in the Android world.

To be fair though, Cyanogen is assuring the public that Microsoft’s apps won’t come pre-installed, and users will be able to delete any apps they don’t want. This is particularly important for Cyanogen, as the company has built its reputation on allowing user choice and an open operating system.

Microsoft has stacked its cards very cleverly, we have to admit. Especially because all of this news came to light while Google is under considerable amounts of regulatory and legal pressure within the EU over Android.

We assumed that Microsoft has been out of the game - but really, they just were just being ninjas.