Meizu to get a $590 million investment from Alibaba

Last October, we shared news about the Meizu MX4 Pro smartphone. This device is rumored to be packing heavyweight specifications, like an octa-core Samsung Exynos CPU, quad-HD display, 3 GB of RAM, and a couple of monster cameras.

One thing that really set the MX4 Pro apart was the operating system spotted on the device, YunOS (shortened from Aliyun OS), a Linux-based platform developed by none other than Chinese e-Commerce giant, Alibaba. The two companies announced a partnership about the same time we saw the MX4 Pro rise to the surface.

YunOS is Alibaba’s move into the white-hot smartphone market that is China, and the company has made no secret of its intentions to compete with Google and Apple. Google’s Android holds a commanding overall market share in China, but Google’s services are not leveraged well. Some of that is due to market limitations, but mostly it is because of government interference.

That leaves the door open for a well-funded company like Alibaba to make a big bet on its home market, and that is just what it is doing, by announcing it will be buying a minority stake in Meizu for $590 million.

Alibaba will have a dedicated channel to push YunOS, and Meizu will have access to Alibaba’s considerable sales and distribution channels, along with other resources. There is no indication that this will result in any push of YunOS powered devices outside of China.

source: Reuters