Elly Yates-Roberts |
Smart devices provider Honor and Microsoft are to expand their partnership, collaborating on Microsoft cloud adoption, personal and mobile computing, and other technologies.
“Honor is committed to adopting a consumer-centric approach and develop best-in-class products for our users,” said George Zhao, CEO of Honor. “We are confident that together Honor and Microsoft will be able to establish an interconnection between end-devices and the all-scenario ecology to create a new intelligent world for everyone.”
The strategic cooperation memorandum signed by the two companies will see Honor adopt artificial intelligence speech and translation services based on Microsoft Azure. These services will be used to support Honor’s Smart Assistant YOYO, collaborative office, smart travel, life services, smart translation and other applications.
Microsoft will also help to improve the user experience of Honor’s devices, cooperating across mobile computing, PC and productivity applications. Microsoft’s resources, technical skills and global reach will also provide support for Honor’s global expansion.
The latest agreement builds on an existing relationship between the two companies. Honor’s MagicBook Pro – launched in July 2019 – came pre-loaded with Windows 10. The company has also enhanced the hardware, performance, and operating experience of its latest PC products for the release of Windows 11, so that they better serve the features of the new operating system. The Honor MagicBook V 14 laptops will be the world’s first batch of computers to come pre-installed with Windows 11, and will be unveiled at Honor Life, Honor Smart Life Product Launch, on 26 September.
“In the era of the new normal, all parts of the world and all walks of life are accelerating digital transformation,” said Hou Yang, corporate vice president, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region. “Microsoft hopes to accelerate the integrated development of software and hardware intelligence by continuously deepening and expanding our strategic cooperation with Honor, to bring richer experiences to end users, and to bring born-in-Asia innovations to the world by leveraging Microsoft Azure.”