The Xiaomi Mi A1 did wonders in the market last year, but it may have backfired in some ways. Xiaomi posted a Twitter poll online on Monday, asking its users whether they preferred MIUI 9 or Android One, supposedly having faith that they had enough MIUI fans out there.
What they got instead was 57% of the users preferring Android One to Xiaomi’s in-house UI. Before you start running off and to check on Twitter, you should know that Xiaomi deleted all the tweets that were related to the poll as soon as they saw that MIUI 9 had lost the battle.
Honestly, why ask questions if you can’t handle the truth?
What’s the difference?
There’s Stock Android and then there’s MIUI (MI User Interface), which is Xiaomi’s own OS, which is based on the Google's Android system.
Most Android phones in the market today come with one or the other customisation on top of the core Android system. Different brands do it in different ways.
The Stock Android system is for users who are overtly concerned about their phone’s stability and data security. They can do without all the bells and whistles, just wanting the smoothest user experience.
The upside is that Stock Android is tested thoroughly by Google’s Android team before it’s released and is as stable as can be. The downside is, well, that you can’t really do much with in terms of customisation.
MIUI, on the other hand, is about as user-friendly as it can be. The development cycles are more frequent, and thus, always prone to certain vulnerabilities. This is because of the pace at which codes and features change, the company has to stay abreast of the curve.
The disappearing act
So, back to the poll. It happened. It’s done. 14,700 people spoke out and it is what it is.
Anyone living in this day and age knows that once you put something online, it’s going to stay online forever regardless of whether you delete it or not. And so does this.
The results of the poll weren’t all that surprising as compared Xiaomi’s actions afterwards. The company has often been questioned for not providing fast Android updates, despite saying on record that MIUI 9 is as fast and functional as Stock Android.
When the Xiaomi Mi A1 was launched, many questioned Xiaomi's choice. While the company said it wanted to give users a choice between Stock Android and MiUI, experts suggested that the move could backfire. And it seems they may have been right.
