In just a couple of years a brand has emerged so strong in China that its cell phones sell out in mere hours. The brand is Xiaomi and its latest flagship the Mi-2 runs Android with MIUI custom ROM and while it has Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One-like silicon it only costs half their price.
Xiaomi grew from zero by summer 2011 to 7.19 million smartphones sold in 2012, but that’s just a start as sales should double to around 15 million in 2013.
“We believe the future of the mobile Internet is really about services,” Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin said. “Cellphones are really just like PCs were 20 years ago. They generated big profit margins in the beginning. But those margins are in the single digits now. The same thing is beginning to happen to smartphones. So rather than focus on devices where margins will decline, we’re focusing on services.”
It is that focus on services that allows Xiaomi to sell at prices close to the bill of materials just like Google sells its Nexus devices. Not bad for all those craving affordable smartphones, is it?
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: