Xiaomi reported earnings of only $56 million in 2013, one-tenth what WSJ reported and 1/150 Apple's

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  • Reply 121 of 122
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  • Reply 122 of 122

    It is very very interesting to see the comments from this site! Some comments are so funny as they based on told-story but not the first hand information. Some people choose to see only good for them but ignore something they do not want to see.

    Xiaomi's sale figures are highly doubted here and Xiaomi's relation with Chinese Government is built by people here to support their arguments.

     

    I cannot say the sales figures of Xiaomi are precisely no error, but the number is definitely not fake, supported by the fact that the company now becomes the market LEADER in Chinese smartphone market in Q2, 2014 (14%, from Canalys), putting Samsung to the No.2 position with 2 other Chinese smartphone vendors.

     

    In 11.11.2014, the China and world largest online shopping festival held by Alibaba's tmall site, Xiaomi sold 1.16 million smartphone in the single day from the single online shopping site tmall.com, ranking the number 1 sale revenue according to Alibaba.

    All the figures prove the company with 0 IP is very very successful in China. It does sale big volumes in China and changing Chinese people's concept on how a top-spec smartphone should be priced (alone with Samsung's big drop on its sales).

    Is Xiaomi related to the government? The answer is no. The company is a private company not owned by the government. If it is related to the government, I would say every local smartphone vendors are related to the China government, Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, Coolpad, Vivo, One Plus, Oppo etc. That is impossible and the government owned BS just reflects the fear from the western countries. The truth is Xiaomi is facing severe competition in China market, mainly from its Chinese manufacture siblings. It is also strongly criticized because of its 0 IP by its Chinese competitors.

     

    But is Xiaomi supported by the China government? Maybe or even positive. To me, it is obviously good than bad for the China government to support the growth of Xiaomi. Xiaomi, on the other hand, starts to fight hard against the foreign based smartphone vendors like Samsung, Apple and LG and leads to the smartphone price revolution in the China market because they can take advantage of the support from government even if they have 0 patent in house.

     

    Xiaomi's huge fan based community is genuine, though you can choose to ignore. The company's modified Android UI, MIUI, had over 65 million activated users in Jul 2014. Xiaomi has a weekly update guarantee to its users using the MIUI. The Xiaomi engineers (yes don't be surprised but they do have engineers.) listen to the users opinions and requirements about the MIUI and deliver in time updates every week. As a result, this UI becomes mature and is praised in XDA forum and a growing number of people from XDA are porting the UI into their Android phones. The software side, to be frankly, it Xiaomi's strength and core competence in the Business. Now you know who to blame why the MIUI is so similar to the iOS? The 65 million MIUI owners are all responsible of making the UI looks so close to the iOS.

     

    At last, Xiaomi's flagship phones are not cheap craps. They tend to use the latest hardware available on the market but sell half of the price than its foreign competitors (Mi3=Note 3 hardware and Mi4=Galaxy S5). That is why they are popular in China. Customers do not care if you have 0 patent or 10,000, but if you sell your flagship phone for $400 but Samsung or Sony sell $800, the foreign vendors will be doomed.

    Hope the above info helps. Now my opinion, will Xiaomi challenge Apple in the near future? No, I do not think so. They can only survive in China with 0 patent. Recent ban issued in India proves that. However the company has become rich and able to obtain big amount of investment. It next move is to fill in the blank they have in the IP field, it is reported that Xiaomi is investing big money to build its IP portfolio. The leader, Lei Jun, expects the company to take another 5 years to acquire sufficient IP assets to let the company enter into the first world market. But in the second and third market, Lei Jun is prepared to fight against the IP sue but sill penetrate those market with Xiaomi products as he knows the profit potential in the targeted markets far exceeds the penalty he will face.

     

    I would like to see company like Xiaomi to develop as it does bring more severe competition in the smartphone market and at the end, bring the price down. I noticed some people here view Xiaomi negatively because it steals. Yes it is true. But patent and intellectual property thing itself is a western concept though it is widely adopted in the world. Chinese, unfortunately, NEVER follow the RULE set by others but not themselves. 

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