China is the largest smartphone market in the world and most of the major OEMs are domiciled in China. This gives the country the privilege of being one of the first smartphone markets to try out a new technology. Furthermore, the Chinese models of most devices are cheaper than its global counterparts which compatible with multiple languages thus cust more. In other to try out a new tech first-hand, smartphone enthusiasts sometimes buy the Chinese model (especially when global ROM is not available) and then flash the global ROM on it. People also do this because of the cheaper cost. This is about to change, at least for Xiaomi phones.
Gizchina News of the week
An administrator on the MIUI forum announced that Xiaomi Phones manufactured for the Chinese market will no longer be able to run MIUI Global ROM while those made for Global markets will not be able to run MIUI China ROM. The company did not state why it is taking this decision and it did not also give an indication to the existing phones that will be affected. However, the announcement warned that it “highly recommend you to buy Xiaomi Phones via official or authorized sales channels and double check the system information before flashing or updating.”
Xiaomi fans are not happy about this but we hear that it is still possible to flash whatever ROM you want on phones with an unlocked bootloader.
