I recently read a business blog online which talks about a new phone Xiaomi produced in China , a smartphone similar with Apple. The blog discussed that Xiaomi is often criticized for imitating Apple’s flashy product launches, but there is no doubt the strategy is paying off. The fact is that Xiaomi has eclipsed Apple’s smartphone sales inside the Chinese market. Two years after launching its first phone, it accounts for five per cent of smartphone sales. Apple now has just 4.8 per cent, down from 9.1 per cent in 2012, according to market research firm Canalys. The reasons why Xiaomi is now so popular in Chinese market is firstly price difference from Apple. Xiaomi’s higher-end Mi-2S sells for $285 and obviously the price beat iPhone 5C($757) and Samsung($761). The second reason is that Xiaomi and Apple are vastly different firms. Xiaomi started life as a social networking site and there are no stores which cuts back on costs.
I totally agree with what the author said in the blog, Xiaomi apparently has a lot of advantages in Chinese market. However, it is still small. It has raised projected sales for 2013 to 20 million phones compared to Apple’s 37 million in the first quarter of 2013 alone. The CEO of Xiaomi realized the status quo but he still has Apples-sized ambition: In 2012, he told China Daily that although Apple is a success example, whereas, “if you are just imitating it, you can not overtake it.”
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