Xiaomi phone manufacturer is now one of the biggest phone producers in the world. The company was founded on the 6th of June 2010 and has its headquarters in Beijing, China. It was made possible by 8 different investing groups, one of which is Qualcomm. The company produces processors that are used in Samsung, Sony, HTC and Motorola’s best phones. Two months after the company was registered they released MIUI, a User Interface program built on Android OS. It took another year to release the first phone: The Xiaomi Mi1
The unimpressive yet competent Xiaomi Mi1
With a 4 inch screen and a Dual Core Qualcomm processor, the Mi1 was a fierce opponent for all budget phones in the fall of 2011. It was running MIUI which takes design ques from Samsung and Apple: the two biggest phone manufacturers in the world. The company decided they should give the clients something familiar, powerful but at a low price. The same strategy was applied to the Mi2 phone a year later. Only this time it had ticked all the marks, it was no longer competing with any budget phones, it had the best processor available. Faster than Samsung’s Galaxy S3, which had been released a few months prior, and much much cheaper, less than half the price. Although the screen was only 4.3, compared to Samsung’s 4.8. The thrifty and economical Asian markets quickly sought out the best deal rather than the most advertised device. The Mi2 was sold trough Mobicity, a distribuitor that brought the phone to the US, Europe and Australia. In one year it sold 10 million units.
The Xiaomi Mi3 was launched on 7th of March 2014 and sold out stocks very quickly. The company expanded their market to Mexico, Brazil, Russia and other Asian states. The RedMi Note which had a 5.5 inch screen and and Octa Core processor came out 10 days later, for about 250$. This is almost 4 times cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and 4 phones. How can Xiaomi sell phones at such low prices? They don’t invest in retail and advertising. If you eliminate the cost of billboards, retail spaces and product placements, it’s much easier to sell for a lot lower.
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Bin Lin, president of Xiaomi claims they build the phones at cost. Meaning you basically pay for the materials. Well, as we’d like to believe that, it’s not how businesses work. An iphone costs less than 200$ to make. It’s hard to believe Xiaomi Mi4 costs 300$ to make. But still, they do have a very small profit margin, invest very little in development and research. There are literally hundreds of companies now that build Android phones. The Chinese components market and the open-source availability of the Android OS makes it possible for basically any company to launch a smartphone within months if not weeks. But rest assured that your Xiaomi is build very well, it’s made by Foxconn, the same company that builds the iPhone.
Xiaomi has sold 19 million phones in the 3rd quarter of 2014, putting it on number 3 worldwide, after Apple and Samsung. The company has an order of 100.000 sapphire
The 150$ Xiaomi 1S has a 1.6 Quad Core Qualcomm processor and 4.7″ screen.