小米微軟達成專利合作關係 設備將預裝Office

Software maker Microsoft Corp is selling about 1,500 of its patents to Chinese cellphone maker Xiaomi, a rare departure for the US company and part of what the two companies say is the start of a long-term partnership.

日前，美國軟件製造商微軟公司將向中國手機生產商小米出售約1500項專利。此舉對微軟而言十分罕見，兩家公司表示，這是雙方開啓長期合作的部分舉措。

The deal also includes a patent cross-licensing arrangement and a commitment by Xiaomi to install copies of Microsoft software, including Office and Skype, on its phones and tablets.

這項交易還包括一項專利交叉授權協議以及小米在其手機和平板電腦上安裝Office和Skype等微軟軟件副本的承諾。

Both companies declined to discuss financial terms of the deal.

兩家公司都拒絕談論關於這項交易的財務條款。

"This is a very big collaboration agreement between the two companies," Wang Xiang, senior vice president at Xiaomi, said by telephone ahead of the deal.

小米公司高級副總裁王翔在電話中談論這筆交易時表示：“這是兩家公司之間的一個非常大的合作協議。”

Experts say the patent deal paves the way for the Chinese firm to sell its handsets in Western markets. Microsoft will benefit from the fact that some of its Android apps - including Office and Skype - will now be pre-installed on Xiaomi devices.

有專家表示，此次購買微軟專利給這家中國公司在西方市場銷售手機鋪平了道路。而微軟方面也將會受益。微軟旗下的部分安卓應用程序（包括Office和Skype）將被預裝在小米手機上。

The announcement comes at a time when Xiaomi has been struggling to meet sales targets. The Beijing-based company originally set itself a target of selling 100 million smartphones in 2015. But it managed to sell only 71 million, partly because of increased competition from domestic rivals.

這一購買協議宣佈得非常及時，目前小米正在爲難以達到銷售目標而頭疼。這家總部位於北京的公司本來將其2015年的銷售目標定爲1億臺手機。但是最終只賣出了7100萬臺手機，部分原因是因爲來自國內廠商更加激烈的競爭。

Oppo and Vivo overtook Xiaomi in phone shipments in the first three months of 2016, while Huawei extended its lead, according to research firm IDC. That pushed Xiaomi down to seventh place in global market share. It had been ranked third in 2014.

據調研公司IDC透露，2016年前3個月，Oppo和Vivo手機出貨量都超過了小米，而華爲則擴大了自己的領先優勢。這使得小米的全球市場份額下跌到了第7位。小米在2014年的市場份額曾達到了全球第三位。

Wang Xiang said the acquisition of Microsoft patents, which included voice communications, multimedia and cloud computing, on top of some 3,700 patents the company filed last year, was "an important step forwards to support our expansion internationally."

王翔表示，購買語音通訊、多媒體和雲計算等微軟專利，再加上該公司去年申請的約3700項專利，是"支持小米開展國際性擴張的重要一步"。

Microsoft has recently made moves to scale back its handset operations, cutting jobs in its smartphone division and selling its Nokia-branded feature phone business. However, under chief executive Satya Nadella's leadership it has tried to encourage use of its products on non-Windows handsets.

微軟最近收縮了其手機業務，在智能手機部門進行了裁員，並且出售了諾基亞品牌的功能手機業務。不過，在CEO塞雅·納德拉的領導下，微軟正試圖鼓勵在非Windows系統手機中使用他們的產品。