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The Development of XiaomiXiaomi, founded in April, 2010, is a mobile company which concentrates on smart software and electronic products. The logo of this brand is MI, which is short for Mobile Internet. And it also means Mission Impossible which stand for overcoming impossible challenges.This company aims at lower price and higher cost performance. And because of this target, its products are accepted by the public so that it developed quickly.After Xiaomi company was founded, it released MIUI system at first and then had a boom. Next year, the founding team declared that they would step in the mobile phone market. Over one month later, Xiaomi Mobile Phone Release Conference was held in 798 Art Zone in Beijing where Mi 1 was released and drew attention to the public. So, after people were admitted to reserve Xiaomi mobile phones on the Internet, the company got a huge sale rapidly in a short time. At the same time, the sale was motivation from the market.After it, Xiaomi company developed quickly. What they released were not only a series of Xiaomi Mobile Phone but also other electronic products such as laptops and Mi Bands.Most of these products have won a good reputation for Xiaomi company.However, it’s inevitable for the company to be exposed some negative news. On 2nd September, 2015, the Chairman of Qingcong Mobile Phone Company complained that Xiaomi exaggerated in their advertisement which led to misunderstanding to people. Then Xiaomi company was fined because of this.As for the culture of Xiaomi company, we can know that there isn’t strict classes to divide the employees. All of them are friends. Xiaomi thinks highly of creative Internet culture, avoiding long time meetings to let every employee work in relaxing atmosphere and exert their creation as much as possible. Xiaomi believes that users are the origin of motivation and the company develops at a fast speed with th e expectation of everyone’s enjoying the technology.To some extent, it’s not false to say ‘Xiaomi is the coolest company.’ for the Xiaomi’s fans.Xiaomi has launched its products in Singapore, India, Brazil and so on. And it is expanding its footprint across the world to become a global brand.。
Smartphones in ChinaTaking a bite out of AppleXiaomi, often described as China’s answer to Apple, is actually quite differentSep 14th 2013 | BEIJING |From the print edition••TweetIT FEELS more like a rock concert than a press conference as the casually dressed chief executive takes to a darkened stage to unveil his firm’s sleek new smartphone to an adoring crowd. Yet this was not the launch of the new iPhone by Apple on September 10th, but of the Mi-3 handset by Xiaomi, a Chinese firm, in Beijing on September 5th. With its emphasis on snazzy design, glitzy launches and the cult-like fervour it inspires in its users, no wonder Xiaomi is often compared to its giant American rival, both by admirers and by critics who call it a copycat. Xiaom i’s boss, Lei Jun (pictured), even wears jeans and a black shirt, Steve Jobs-style. Is Xiaomi really China’s answer to Apple?Xiaomi sold 7.2m handsets last year, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, earning revenues of 12.6 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). Apple sold 125m smartphones globally, earning about $80 billion of its $157 billion sales. But since it was founded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown fast.A recent funding round valued it at $10 billion, more than Microsoft just paid for Nokia’s handset unit. That made Xiaomi one of the 15most heavily venture-backed mobile start-ups ever, says Rajeev Chand of Rutberg, an investment bank. In the second quarter of 2013 Xiaomi’s market share in China was 5%, says Canalys, a research firm—more than Apple’s (4.8%) for the fi rst time.In this section•Taking a bite out of Apple•Kroes control•Must try harder•Making friends••Turning against the tycoons••Cut from a different cloth••More money than ThorReprintsRelated topics••Apple iPhone••Communications•Electronics••China••Mobile phonesYet “we have never compared ourselves to Apple—we are more like Amazon,” says Lin Bin, Xiaomi’s co-founder, who once worked for the Chinese arms of Microsoft and Google. Apple sells its iPhone 5 for around $860 in China and has the industry’s highest margins. Xiaomi offers its handsets at or near cost: the Mi-3, its new flagship, costs 2,000 yuan ($330). Xiaomi sells direct to customers online, rather than via network operators or retail stores, which also keeps prices down. Crucially, its business depends on selling services to its users, just as Amazon provides its Kindle readers at low prices and makes its money on the sale of e-books. The idea is to make a profit from customers as they use the handset, rather than from the sale of the hardware, says Mr Lin.Xiaomi’s services revenues were 20m yuan in August, up from 10m yuan in April. It is a classic internet business model: build an audience then monetise it later, as Google and Facebook did, notes Mr Lin. Selling games, custom wallpapers and virtual gifts may not sound very lucrative, but China’s internet giants have found a huge market for virtual goods: the biggest, Tencent, sold $5 b illion-worth of them last year.Another big difference is their openness to user feedback. Apple takes an almost Stalinist approach to its handsets, limiting user customisation in favour of a “we know best” design philosophy. Xiaomi is more guided by its users, releasing a new version of its MIUI software (based on Google’s Android operating sys tem) every week in response to their suggestions. In some cases Xiaomi asks users to vote via weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, on whether particular features should be included or how they should work—a form of democracy its American rival would never countenance.Apple’s launch this week of the iPhone 5C, a colourful, slightly cheaper version of the iPhone aimed at consumers in China an d other developing countries, marks a shift in its strategy as it faces competition from Xiaomi and many other Chinese firms. Apple’s handsets have sold well in developed countries, but those markets are maturing. Global sales of smartphones are growing by 50% a year, notes Canalys, but by 108% a year in China, which now accounts for over one-third of global sales.For the first time, Apple held an official launch event in Beijing this week, indicating its growing interest in this market. Yet there was widespread surprise at the high price of the 5C, which will cost $733 in China, limiting its appeal among less wealthy buyers. A rumoured deal with China Mobile to distribute the iPhone 5C and subsidise its cost has so far failed to materialise. (Apple also unveiled the iPhone 5S, its new high-end smartphone, which features a fingerprint reader for improved security.)Xiaomi the moneyAs Apple looks to tap the rapid growth of the Chinese market, Xiaomi is heading the other way. It recently hired Hugo Barra, a Google executive responsible for product development for Android, to develop new products for international markets.Yet Xiaomi and other Chinese firms sell so many games, apps and add-ons in large part because the Chinese government requires handsets to run a neutered version of the Android operating system, without Google’s app sto re, mail service, maps and other features. That helps Xiaomi sell its own replacement services, an advantage it will lose once it steps outside China. How scared should Apple be, really, of a rival that has yet to prove that its business model will work at home, let alone abroad。
