The company makes smartphones for China, Taiwan, Singapore and other South East Asian countries, but with low overhead—its devices are sold exclusively online—so it can offer bargain prices. It also uses components from an array of outside vendors instead of trying to make its own parts (or pretending to), so it doesn’t have to compromise on hardware specifications—like bigger tech companies often do.
Xiaomi’s fans also consider it a cool local brand. The company’s product announcements come off like rock concerts, and it’s very active on social media. Yet, it also manages to convey an image of humility and
care for the customer experience. That helped it overcome a potential nightmare recently: When it came to light that it collected addressbook contacts without users’ permission, Xiaomi didn’t equivocate, but apologized and changed the default setting. Taiwan investigated the matter and
wound up dismissing it.
A more cynical view of its business: Xiaomi succeeds because it rips off other people’s products. (See below.)
For all that hand-wringing, though, what’s less clear is that consumers actually care. For far less than what Apple or its rival Samsung charges for flagship devices—full price, the base model
iPhone 6 Plus costs close to $1,000 U.S. dollars in China—customers will be able to pick up the new Mi Note for about $370 (base model) and $520 (pro version).
The 5.7-inch phablet measures 6.95mm in thickness and comes with a 3200 mAh battery, curved Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and high-megapixel cameras in the front (4 MP) and rear (13 MP), with wide aperture and optical; image stabilization. Users can pick from a choice of Snapdragon processors, 3GB or 4GB of RAM, 16GB or 64GB of storage, and a 1080p or 1440p display.
The pro model just might be the best smartphone to hit the market yet. Its hardware specifications look even better than the iPhone 6 Plus, with photo-taking abilities as good as the HTC One and other coveted features—such as high fidelity audio quality, super-fast LTE support and dual 4G-SIM support, in a nano SIM and a micro SIM, to cover more networks.
The Mi Note launches in Taiwan in the next quarter; after that, it’s off to other non-U.S. markets. However, Xiaomi does
want to reach American consumers, and this year, it will begin work on devices and dealing with the LTE bands in use here for a product roll-out later.
Xiaomi faces some significant challenges in doing so, though. Not the least of these is the fact that smartphone components and designs are heavily patented—and
Xiaomi doesn’t hold many such patents itself. That means it would need to spend huge sums on licensing before it can sell in the U.S. or Western Europe. For a company that mostly sells its products close to cost, that’s a big hurdle.
Smartphones, however, look like just one piece of Xiaomi’s larger puzzle. The company has big ambitions and the underpinnings of a broader smart home play already in place. The company sells connected electronics through its Mi.com website, and it all links up by Xiaomi’s software, a variation on Android called Miui,
notes Stratechery’s Ben Thompson, a Taiwan-based technology consultant and writer.
Source : http://readwrite.com/2015/01/16/xiaomi-basics-introduction/
No comments:
Post a Comment