Xiaomi is a new fish in the smartphone pond, but its growth has been remarkable.
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The sources said that the first batch of Xiaomi products have been delivered from China to Brazil, but Foxconn, known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Group (鴻海), will assemble the Xiaomi smartphones at its Brazilian plant.
This week Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi said it managed to sell 34.7 million devices in the first six months of the year, meaning the company looks increasingly unlikely to achieve its full year target.
Chief Executive Lei had originally gunned for 100 million in 2014, but opted for a more conservative range earlier this year. Firstly, its home market is slowing down in absolute terms as penetration increases: sales fell 4% in the first quarter, this was according to research firm IDC. That’s less than half of what the company had estimated as its target for the entire year.
That could happen, for a couple of reasons: China’s biggest national holiday Golden Week is coming up on October 1 and will see a surge in local shopping, akin to the Christmas holiday season in the West.
This year has been challenging for Xiaomi in the wake of high rate of competition in the Chinese market and the near saturation levels.
It has dominated the lower end of the Android market, entering the list of top five phone sellers past year, despite its market being limited to just Asia.
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Xiaomi is the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer and is now valued at $45bn (£28.8bn), having swiftly grown inside its native China before expanding to the rest of Asia. Fortunately for Xiaomi, Samsung is a familiar foe that it has already leapfrogged in China.
