Chinese Phone Maker Xiaomi Deletes a Public MIUI vs Android One Twitter Poll After Voting Didn't Go Its Way (betanews.com) 61
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which sells handsets at razor thin margins, is increasingly dominating in its home market and emerging places such as India and Indonesia. To make money, the company relies on a range of homegrown software features in its Android-based MIUI operating system. In a surprising move earlier this week, the company asked its Twitter followers to choose between MIUI and Android One (which runs pure Android OS). Things didn't go as it had planned. From a report: Presumably the company was rather hoping that Twitter users would vote for its own MIUI which it could then rub in Google's face -- but the poll actually went against Xiaomi. Rather than leave the results of the vote up for anyone to see, the company decided to simply delete it and pretend it never happened. Take a look at the Xiaomi account on Twitter, and you'll see no hint that any such poll has ever taken place. But over on Reddit, there's a thread which was started by someone posting a link to the poll. In the comments, one Redditor noticed after a period of voting that: "So far it's 53-47 for android one."
He who controls the spice (Score:2, Troll)
Controls the universe!
(spice = social media)
Not bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Strange. To me, 53-47 for Android One is huge win for Xiaomi flavored OS. That's a small spread. Xiaomi is close.
Try the poll with Microsoft's OS vs Android. Then you will see what losing looks like.
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53-47 that is a crap poll unless those numbers are for hundreds or thousand. If I were a manufacturer, I would delete it too, nothing to do with the direction of the polling, just the tiny numbers reflecting a lack of interest. An important question, how many hours was the poll up for and why did it attract so few people.
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53+47=100. I think the results mentioned were percents and not the total number of voters.
ROMs without GPL violation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: They laugh all the way to the bank (Score:2)
A TV box? You mean like one of those POSs you buy on eBay that advertises free cable for life and is otherwise built like crap? That's not Google's fault that you bought one. And why on Earth are you using a keyboard and mouse on a TV? That's retarded unless you're sitting up close to it like a computer, in which case, why not just use a computer? Besides, Android isn't designed very well for keyboard and mouse. Hell, the apps themselves aren't either (hence the lack of scaling windows.) That's what chrome
How does Xiaomi get to Twitter? (Score:5, Informative)
Twitter is banned in China. How did Xiaomi do this?
Their MIUI is a joke anyway, it's as close as they can get to ripping off Apple and implementing it in Android. They got banned from XDA-developers.com for refusing to follow the GPL and release the source code modifications they made. Their official forums are godawful and difficult to read or follow.
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Twitter is banned in China. How did Xiaomi do this?
Xiaomi phones are popular in India and SE Asia.
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They have overseas operations. Also, Twitter isn't totally banned. In Shenzhen internet access is a little more liberal, to help tech companies do business internationally.
For example, it's kinda hard to develop an internationally sold Android phone when all Google services are blocked.
Not sure why the headline felt the need to mention that this company is Chinese though. What relevance does it have?
Lesson to be learned: (Score:5, Funny)
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried. ;)
It's how Chinese culture works... sadly. (Score:1)
Anyone who has ever tried to have a "customer relationship" with a Chinese company, knows this. ... (Our blame culture VS their shame culture. Our antisocial attitudes VS their concept of "face".) ... But also due to the totalitarian government. Something that will soon be the case around here too.
The communication is a nightmare. Partially due to the differences in basic culture
The mindset is now, that blatant censorship (aka 'moderation') is totally OK, including shadowbanning and vanishing anyone who que
Down the memory hole it goes (Score:1)
Amateurs (Score:5, Interesting)
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Nine out of ten dentists recommend that companies should fake poll results!
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Everybody knows that what they should have done was fake the results like every other company does.
Perhaps they did post fake votes, but underestimated just how many they'd need to swing the results in their favor.
China's Samsung! (Score:4, Insightful)
Xiaomi is the chinese equivalent of Samsung. They make EVERYTHING, from phones to air conditioners, from robot vacuums to RGB light bulbs.
In a couple of years we'll see much more of this company. Their products are actually quite good. So far i've used their dirt-cheap "smart plugs" and the incredibily niche but super cool "air conditioner companion" (a device to turn your regular remote control based AC into a "smart" air conditioner).
So far they seem to be China-only with their products. But soon we'll see more of them.
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So far they seem to be China-only with their products. But soon we'll see more of them.
Their other products are actually widely distributed outside the US, even if availability is spotty. Their fitness trackers, power banks, and their Bluetooth-enabled so-called* smart scale are quite popular. (*Does adding a wireless security hole necessarily turn an electronic scale smart?)
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I don't think many MIUI users voted... (Score:2, Interesting)
Most Xiaomi users I know (and I happen to know quite a lot since they are getting popular in Europe) really like MIUI and it is one of the reasons they choose the these phones. In fact, a cousin was telling me yesterday me how disappointed she was by the changes in the OS when she updated from her older Xiaomi to a newer one. Which one did you get I asked her... The Mi A1 she tells me...
I had to explain that with the only Xiaomi Android One phone she has some advantages over MIUI users - e.g. the first one
Re: I don't think many MIUI users voted... (Score:1)
I also am a user of Xiaomi phones. I have a RedMi 4X with miui os.
I actually like it a lot. It is simple, it gets the job done and it quite stays out of the way of what I need to do. The price I got it is quite good, at 140EUR almost one year ago. It is decent hardware and works flawlessly. And it is a dualSIM too. Battery lasts 4 days which is very good in this era of phones really being pocket computers with an embedded SIM.
When I bought it, similar grade Samsung cost around 350-400EUR and it had nothing
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Come on, show me (Score:3)
XiaoMi the results, baby, but show me...
Android One vs MiUI (Score:1)
53-47... Not a very big margin (Score:1)
I guess some people are kinda sensitive.
We give you freedom to choose. NO MISTAKES! (Score:2)
If you do not choose how we like, we will destroy the poll and GIVE YOU the solution WE KNOW you like best!
What could be more free?
That shit may go over in China.
Pretty much everywhere else, it has people wiping their ass with your product and mailing it back to you Collect On Delivery.
While mildly embarassing.. (Score:2)
If the results are truly representative of their market, it would vindicate their business strategy.
Sure, most prefer the multi-vendor Android ecosystem.
If however 47% are happy to buy into lock-in, then Xiaomi's investment in the platform is well justified for a future of cranking up the margin without seeing all their customers jump ship.
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Huh? The most popular phone in the US is the iPhone. People are more than happy to buy into vendor lock in. You can't get more "vendor lock in" than Apple.
Pretty bad (Score:2)
That's incredibly bad if the vote wasn't completely against MIUI, which was basically born as a total iOS rip off.
But I imagine the vast majority of voters cannot see past the superficial UI... they'll choose whatever they are more used to, or that makes more usability sense to them personally, discarding the fact that you can pretty much emulate whatever MIUI has with stock Android.
Nevermind the fact that Android One is more secure, will always receive updates first, and has some guarantees in place to avo
Replying to post above *LOATHE comments scripting (Score:2)
Not sure why the headline felt the need to mention that this company is Chinese though. What relevance does it have?
Yes; good question. This isn't a war, where the arms supplier makes a difference. These are phones, FFS. If you aren't even aware that Xiaomi is a Chinese firm by now, go crawl back underneath that rock from whence you came. Or get some sun once in a while, the food isn't the cause of that stench in the basement of your mom's dwelling. Wash those socks, too, before they become capable of stand