“The U.S.is a market that we definitely have in our sights”.
Advertisement
In order to appeal to the younger generation in America, Xiaomi is planning a combination of online direct sales and social media which is where the company has put its primary targets. While we can expect to see a new product launched in the United States sometime in October, Barra would not put a time frame on when we will begin seeing devices such as the Xiaomi Mi 5 or Xiaomi Mi Max. But the smartphone vendor is now in a better position to launch an incursion onto Apple’s turf. In order to avoid legal entanglements, Xiaomi has bought 1,500 technology patents from Microsoft. The two companies collectively account for 59 percent of the US market but now need to “face the fact that USA smartphone industry has passed its zenith”.
Barra mentioned in his interview with Bloomberg that Xiaomi will be launching a new product in the US this October. We’ve seen products that have turned heads and devices that have dominated markets, such as India, but the question has been, when is Xiaomi coming to the US. “Obviously we’ve got to time things carefully”. Smartphone sales are also largely controlled by telecommunications carriers, such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T, a channel with which Xiaomi has limited experience.
Now, according to Hugo Barra, the Chinese OEM has the USA set in its sights, but one question remains, when is the manufacturer officially going to be launching its smartphones in this region? Rivals such as Huawei and ZTE Corp. are also increasingly targeting American consumers. It will also have to consider the economics of such a move. Barra noted that the market is “very important”, but tackling it will require prefect timing at the company continues to focus resources toward India, Indonesia and, of course, China.
Xiaomi needs a win in India. IDC estimated that Xiaomi shipped only 10.5 million smartphones in China in the second quarter, a fall of 38 percent from a year earlier. It’s steadily losing ground to local competitors like Huawei, Oppo and Vivo.
Advertisement
Barra however dismissed the figure as “not accurate”.
