Xiaomi is a 4 year old Chinese company which started off with MIUI as a third party operating system and further went on to manufacture smartphones. Their reason to enter into the manufacturing space was to give its desired operating software, a home of it’s own. So that everyone can enjoy the custom user interface without worrying about compatibility issues.
Just weeks after beating Lenovo & LG and claiming the 3rd spot as a the world’s largest smartphone maker, Lei Jun made a striking statement about his company at China’s World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. He stated that within 5 years or a decade, Xiaomi will become the number one smartphone company in the world.
He further stated that three years ago, no one would’ve believed Xiaomi would rank as world’s third largest player, but it did. The company also claims India to be their largest overseas market. Considering the frenzy created by it’s online flash sales through Flipkart, no doubt India is important for them.
In China, Xiaomi successfully managed to beat Apple’s iPhone in the March-June period wherein Apple had a share of 6.9% and Xiaomi won over with a share of 13.5%. But on a global scale, Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments had a smaller share of 6% whereas Samsung and Apple had a share of 25% and 12% respectively.
At the same conference, Bruce Sewell, Apple’s Senior VP of legal and government affairs commented, “It is easy to say, it is more difficult to do,” to which Lei Jun retorted by calling Xiaomi a small miracle which appeared from the same land which produced Alibaba.
The surprising speed at which Xiaomi is progressing since they launched their first smartphone, it will only be interesting to see how they manage to overtake Apple and Samsung, thus become the dominant smartphone player.
The iPhone Help
The iPhone Help