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Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

reuters.com

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Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#11

Post by kyriakos »

aavotins wrote: post #3

I have been eyeing Xiaomi for some time and even bought some of their products. And I was not disappointed. Something tells me that it's going to be the next Samsung.

I did buy two Xiaomi phones for members of my family. They are really good for the price when compared to more mainstream brands. They also have strong community support and both models I tried have unofficial Cyanogenmod firmware. To be honest though other than the possible "spying" from the Chinese ROMs, Xiaomi's MIUI is beautiful, well thought, and gets updated every week.

Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#13

Post by Arnt »

mtgx wrote: post #8
aavotins wrote: post #3

I have been eyeing Xiaomi for some time and even bought some of their products. And I was not disappointed. Something tells me that it's going to be the next Samsung.

But, you know, with more backdoors.

I'll bite. How do I know that and more than what?

Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#14

Post by bkor »

ptaipale wrote: post #9
nitin_flanker wrote: post #5

Acquisition of patent is one of the top priority of Xiaomi at this stage when it's trying to expand itself globally. I believe Hugo Barra is doing an excellent work here. The acquisition of Microsoft patent gonna open the door of the US smartphone market for Xiaomi. As per this report -- http://www.greyb.com/patent-portfolio-analysis-of-xiaomi-glo... -- one of the biggest hurdle is Xaiomi's miniscule patent portfolio…

It is kind of sad that the power of innovation is not really in making something that is new and customers want to buy; even entering the market means you need to possess a portfolio where you count the patents by hundreds or thousands, and then you hire lawyers to negotiate a balance scale where each side throws a portfolio in the cup.

It is telling two things: 1) The ability to compete and cost associated to compete is worse in US and Europe. 2) Further, patents are mostly used as anti competitive behaviour; it is not related to "innovation", nor is it related to research and development.

Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#15

Post by nitin_flanker »

ptaipale wrote: post #9
nitin_flanker wrote: post #5

Acquisition of patent is one of the top priority of Xiaomi at this stage when it's trying to expand itself globally. I believe Hugo Barra is doing an excellent work here. The acquisition of Microsoft patent gonna open the door of the US smartphone market for Xiaomi. As per this report -- http://www.greyb.com/patent-portfolio-analysis-of-xiaomi-glo... -- one of the biggest hurdle is Xaiomi's miniscule patent portfolio…

It is kind of sad that the power of innovation is not really in making something that is new and customers want to buy; even entering the market means you need to possess a portfolio where you count the patents by hundreds or thousands, and then you hire lawyers to negotiate a balance scale where each side throws a portfolio in the cup.

See, patents can be used as a barrier to entry in any market. This is what happening with Xaiomi. In the past, when it entered into South Korea, it was sued withing 2 days.

Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#16

Post by rasz_pl »

yread wrote: post #6

Anybody wants to speculate on price?

I would guess around 1 Billion dollars ... worth of patents given away by Microsoft as an 'investment' in Xiaomi. Just like Intel was forced to a 1.5B 'deal' last year.

There is a LOT of talk about anticompetitive practices by Microsoft lately, this usually results in such pseudo investment/partnership with native chinese company, or $1B anti competitive fine like the one Qualcomm received. Apple is also on a short list of getting fined/kicked hard.

Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#18

Post by pawadu »

I think in 2-4 years, xiaomi will be a market leader. I believe this for three reasons:

1. the Chineese government got their backs. (e.g. foreign competitors have been forced to agree to not sue these guys to get their mergers approved)

2. they make long term strategic decisions. xiaomi is owned by the employees and don't have any short-sighted shareholders to please

3. their engineering and manufacturing teams have a very efficient iterative workflow. many other companies ship a product and move on to the next but xiaomi updates and improves their products every four weeks (eight ?).

Re: Microsoft sells patents to Xiaomi

#20

Post by ksec »

It is one way to equip itself with patents for International Market. It is also worth mentioning Xiaomi, should they decide to enter US market, will cost a little more due to 4G licensing cost.

And Microsoft will get Office into the hands of million Xiaomi users.

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