
Xiaomi stops disclosing annual sales figures - kitschshrine
https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/11/xiaomi-2016-to-2017/
======
DCKing
It's interesting what's going on here. They have gone on record before that
they're not making a profit on their phones, and evidently their tactics are
creating a bit of an internal mess. They've grown very rapidly.

I imported a Xiaomi Mi 4C a month or two ago for €100 (it still sells around
that price). For that price you get a fantastic 5" screen, the same Snapdragon
808 chip / 2GB RAM as the €300 Nexus 5X, a more than decent camera and great
build and battery life. The heavily customized OS is surprisingly tasteful and
useable, and is being regularly updated with features and Android security
updates. In addition the Android core of their custom OS will even get a
promised update to Android 7.0 this year, despite the phone being on the
market for nearly two years. I'm very happy with it.

If you look at the EU market in the same price category, you can only get
utter crap. Specs and general usability of phones in the same price category
do not compare, and you need to go well over €250 to find comparable phones.
Even then, the software support of those competing devices still does not
compare, mostly.

Given that, I do not believe for a second that Xiaomi is able to sell this
phone sustainably for this price. Keeping costs low through a focus on Asian
markets and low-overhead distribution costs does not magically remove the
component and development costs that go into such a device for them to be able
to make a profit on it for €100. What's more is that Xiaomi has _several_
models with a 'low-end' price that have mid-to-high-end specs. You see that
Xiaomi has quickly won popularity in the tech savvy west for their bang-for-
buck value in smartphones despite usually not even selling there.

This is all great for the consumer, but evidently it cannot be (and is not)
great for Xiaomi. They wanted market share and they got it, now it's time for
the next step.

~~~
disiplus
i ordered xiaomi note 2 for my sister and you get what you pay. the rom is
completly shit. its full of ads you cannot turn of. and the battery became
unusable after only half year. because i ordered it online i dont have any
warrany. my sister had to buy a new smartphone. dont just look at the specs
when you buy something.

~~~
dilemma
Xiaomi roms don't have ads. You ordered from a third party vendor that had
installed their own rom showing ads. This is a problem of their distribution
model -- the phones are available internationally only via unofficial third
parties -- rather than their product.

~~~
Markoff
You can get them in major European electronics chains, no need any shady
reseller. They are pricier than online but you will get clean software and two
year warranty while price is still beating closest competition of Lenovo and
Honor.

------
schuke
Even though Xiaomi is most widely known as a smartphone manufacturer, for me
it's a fantastic home appliance and electronic accessories maker. They're
great value for their price. I've come to own so many of these without even
noticing myself:

\- A great body weight scale that I use almost everyday, for around 100 yuan
(~14 dollars). Has Bluetooth and syncs with your phone. I bought a second one
for my mom.

\- Four air purifiers. 699 yuan each (~100 dollars). A third or a fourth the
price of rivals from traditional home appliance makers. Two for me and two for
my mom. They also have a great app that connects them to my phone. These are
such great values that my friends and colleagues bought ~10 more in total
based on my feedback. Given the terrible smog in Northern China it's no
surprise they've been out of stock for weeks this winter.

\- One 10,000mAh power brick for my wife. I think it was less than 15 dollars.
Many of my friends use Xiaomi's battery pack too.

\- Countless cheap Lightning cables.

In addition to these, I'm also planning to buy another two of their products
for the coming Chinese New Year:

\- A water purifier for 1999 yuan (~290 usd). Good design that let's you
change filter without fuss. Also connects to phone.

\- A robot vacuum for 1699 yuan (~250 usd). Two of my friends bought it and
feedback has been positive. Also has an app, naturally.

\- Another air purifier.

My point is that if you're a watcher of Xiaomi, you have to look beyond the
phones.

~~~
kartD
Are you using it outside of China? Just curious because I'd like to try
importing their stuff

~~~
schuke
I use them in Beijing. You might wanna make sure some of their designs don't
have IP infringements before importing though.

------
ilamont
_highly-regarded Chinese outfit_

It wasn't so much a matter of being "highly regarded" as it was being overly
hyped. I am not sure if it was the media’s fault or Xiaomi’s own PR efforts,
but the nonstop “Steve Jobs of China” headlines and fawning articles about the
hardware and Miui were over the top. When Xiaomi was listed #2 in Technology
Review’s “50 Smartest Companies” of 2015 (behind Tesla, 1) I was flabbergasted
— yes, they are nice phones (we own a Hongmi and a another larger-screen phone
whose name I can’t remember) but there are lots of problems with Xiaomi’s
Android implementation, and the low-cost strategy is clearly not sustainable.

Design can only take you so far in the Android universe, as the HTC example
demonstrates (2). Undercutting competitors on price is also not a long-term
strategy.

1\.
[https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2015/](https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2015/)

2\. [http://www.recode.net/2016/4/12/11586042/htc-10-looks-to-
mak...](http://www.recode.net/2016/4/12/11586042/htc-10-looks-to-make-amends)

~~~
adventurer
Counterfeit Jobs is just the media being the media. Lei Ju dressed like Steve
and presented like him. They have done nothing remotely innovative as a
company. Their phones looked like duplicates of the iPhone and the Samsung
Galaxy lineup for years, which from my understanding, is why they haven't
entered the U.S. or other markets yet.

~~~
izacus
If you actually used any of their devices you'll quickly see that "done
nothing remotely innovative" is an utter lie.

~~~
adventurer
You are correct, I can point to countless articles showing what they have done
without actually using them. Blatant design and OS ripoffs is what I can take
away from it. "AN APPLE OF ANDROID", "Xiaomi's Mi Pad Is Almost a Spitting
Image of the iPad Mini", etc. Show me an article or two where they have been
innovative, please.

------
WhitneyLand
They're in a weak position long term because they don't have a cohesive
strategy. It's a shotgun approach of trying many diverse offerings and hoping
something will take off. The problem with this is lack of focus, not being
able to rally the company around a singular mission.

If you look at all of their businesses most are either low margin or
undifferentiated or both.

They have a big asset tied up in their patent portfolio. They need to make use
of it, either defensively i.e. enter a western market, or as a platform to
focus more of their efforts around fewer initiatives and become truly great at
something that makes money. It's hard to be innovative at many things at once.

------
darklajid
I bought an Amazfit Pace after Pebble went down. Boy is that thing broken:
That smart watch has glitches showing the _time_, notifications are broken
beyond repair - some plain don't show up and most others are duplicated and
the watch soft reboots/crashes a lot.

I can see why the parent company might want to slow down a bit..

------
dingleberry
it could be that mi phones are so good that people like me and my wife do not
want to buy a new replacement.

i dropped my mi 1S on hard ground one year ago. the screen glass was torn, but
not detached; however, the touch is not affected at all. the face camera still
works but the pic is blurry due to torn glasses covering the face camera.

last week my 4yo son threw my wife's mi 2. screen torn (much worse than mine,
but the scars do not cross important areas like front camera), touch ok,
camera ok.

i asked her if she wants a new phone? she flatly said no. it still works
great.

i had a chinese no name brand tablet. dropped wooden toy on it, screen torn,
touch broke, 'mouse' jitters. luckily pointers still functions with normal
mouse (use utb-otg) after detaching the touch sensor ribbon cable.

so yeah, xiao mi phones are robust and ours are 24/7 abused. they (mi 1s and
mi 2s) still get great build even when the prices are just around $100. the
second thing less abused in my house is my lenovo yoga (ultra-slim laptop). oh
wait, probably the most abused is my cisco router.

we do have more high end phones like motorolla and asus; however, they are not
used as much as the mis. not because they are more expensive so we care more.
it's just painful to use say asus. it's power hungry, and data hungry, often
betrayed us on critical moments. we just don't use it. the asus z5 is now used
by my 4yo son to watch youtube.

on last note, we like that our mis do not have a brand printed facing us,
unlike the ASUS or SAMSUNG. i never like printed brand on my personal stuffs
just to show off. printed brands on inside, not to show off, are ok.

------
iliaznk
I bought a Redmi 3s phone about 3 weeks ago after my Nexus 4 dropped in water
and I'm still very impressed with its build quality, the MIUI shell is great
and what I really like is the battery life. There's no chance I'll ever buy
anything else while such great and cheap offerings exist in the market.

------
touristtam
Too much competition from other Chinese phone maker and too fast
diversification?

