Alongside today's announcement that Windows 10 will be coming to 190 countries worldwide this summer, Microsoft has also announced it's latest partnership with a company that previously has nothing much to do with Microsoft. That company is Xiaomi, touted as the fastest growing android phone brand to ever exist.

But hey, you'll be asking, what does Microsoft have to do with an android company. No, they're not pre-installing Microsoft apps on to their android phones (Samsung did that), but instead they're part of Microsoft's pilot program which allows android phones to run Windows 10 natively. You heard it right, natively; It's not a launcher but an actual Windows 10 ROM will be loaded on to Xiaomi's phones.

Live images of the Mi4 running Windows; photo: MIUI

But, the catch is that in this pilot program, Microsoft will be choosing select Xiomi Mi4 power users to test run Windows 10. No word on when Microsoft plans to expand the device support or whether will it end up being a long term kind of thing.

If you were wondering why would Microsoft choose Xiaomi opposed to say Samsung or HTC. The answer lies with the custom ROM community, chances are you've heard of Cyanogen but besides that, Xiaomi's MIUI is also a popular alternative. To add to that, their online MIUI community is also quite responsive with feedback and Xiaomi phones are also made to be hacked on as the company would not void the warranty on installing custom ROMs. Not to mention that Xiaomi phone are already rooted.

SOURCE: MIUI and Windows Blog