Xiaomi – a broadly regarded Chinese language electronics firm – has grow to be a widely known identify within the smartphone market globally. The corporate had gained some recognition because the Apple of China in its early days, however with its expanded presence in areas together with India, it was capable of grow to be a family identify for tens of millions of individuals. Lei Jun based Xiaomi as an Web firm in April 2010 after being part of entities equivalent to Kingsoft and UCWeb. However he is not alone behind its success. He, in actual fact, established the corporate in partnership with former Google China government Lin Bin and 5 different trade faces, particularly Dr. Zhou Guangping, Liu De, Li Wanqiang, Wong Kong-Kat, and Hong Feng.
In a span of 10 years, Xiaomi efficiently raised the bar for international smartphone makers and made the competitors more durable for established and matured gamers together with Apple and Samsung. The corporate additionally wrote its success story in India, the place home firms equivalent to Karbonn, Micromax, and Spice needed to chunk the mud primarily as a result of arrival of Mi and Redmi branded telephones by the Chinese language entity.
As Xiaomi is celebrating its tenth anniversary, this is a fast timeline round its evolution and development throughout the globe.
April 2010: The institution
Co-founders Lei Jun, Lin Bin, Dr. Zhou Guangping, Liu De, Li Wanqiang, Wong Kong-Kat, and Hong Feng established Xiaomi in Beijing in April 2010. The corporate arrange its existence with a “Mi” emblem that stands for “Cellular Web” amongst different meanings together with “Mission Unattainable”.
August 2010: Launch of MIUI
Shortly after establishing its model and entity in China, Xiaomi in August 2010 introduced MIUI as its Android-based firmware — a solution to Samsung’s TouchWiz however with tons of parts matching Apple’s iOS. The corporate additionally fashioned a listing of contributors for testing MIUI, a bunch of individuals it calls Mi followers. Rivals equivalent to Huawei and Oppo additionally adopted within the footsteps of Xiaomi and introduced their customized firmware variations. Furthermore, MIUI has over 279 million customers globally.
August 2011: Unveils its first smartphone
Xiaomi took a yr after unveiling the MIUI customized firmware to unveil its first smartphone based mostly on that proprietary providing in August 2011. It known as the telephone the Mi 1 that did not enter India however commercially went on sale in some East Asian markets, in fact, together with China.
July 2013: Expands smartphone lineup by bringing Redmi telephones
After getting preliminary success with its inexpensive Mi smartphones, Xiaomi expanded its lineup in China by launching Redmi as its sub-brand and introduced the Redmi 1 as the primary smartphone from its new portfolio in July 2013. The Redmi model is at present catering to the plenty, whereas Xiaomi wants to target the premium market with its Mi model.
February 2014: Units up first headquarters in Singapore to transcend China
The corporate’s early journey was restricted to China to a serious extent, however Xiaomi took a step to transcend China and introduced Singapore because the place for its first worldwide headquarters in February 2014. Following Singapore, the corporate expanded its footprint by establishing workplaces in Malaysia, Philippines, and India.
July 2014: Enters India with Mi 3
After a lot anticipation because of its inexpensive choices, Xiaomi lastly entered India in July 2014. The corporate launched the Mi 3 as its first smartphone in India that offered like hotcakes. It additionally appointed former Jabong co-founder Manu Kumar Jain as its India head and began its operations regionally within the nation by taking inputs from Vice President Hugo Barra, former Google Product Administration Director. In 2017, Jain was elevated to Barra’s role for the reason that latter moved to Fb to steer its digital actuality (VR) workforce.
July 2014: Brings Mi Band as first wearable
Xiaomi initially made its success as a smartphone maker, however in July 2014, it expanded its product vary by launching the Mi Band as its first wearable. The ultra-affordable Mi Band had a 30-day battery life and options equivalent to sleep and health monitoring. It was priced at Rs. 999 in India ($13 within the US). Simply months after its launch, the Mi Band hit the milestone of a million shipments in December 2014.
August 2015: Begins making telephones in India
Xiaomi kicked off its India manufacturing operations in August 2015 by partnering Foxconn. The corporate established its first facility at Sri Metropolis in Andhra Pradesh. It was the corporate’s second plant outdoors of China, with the primary being in Brazil. In November final yr, the corporate introduced that as a lot as 99 percent of its phones sold in India are made in India.
Could 2017: Opens first Mi House retailer in India
Initially, Xiaomi was recognized for promoting smartphones via on-line channels. The corporate, nevertheless, in Could 2017 established its first Mi Home store in India — in Bengaluru — to not simply promote but in addition showcase its product lineup to Indian prospects. This was a observe up of the corporate’s preliminary transfer to tie up with retail partners such as The Mobile Store for promoting choose fashions offline within the nation. Xiaomi’s offline technique maybe helped develop its enterprise in India because it sold over a million devices offline in a single day in January this yr.
January 2018: Passes Samsung to grow to be prime smartphone vendor in India
The rising success of Xiaomi made issues tough for Samsung that had led the India smartphone marketplace for a while. In January 2018, stories from analysis corporations Canalys and Counterpoint Analysis revealed that Xiaomi lastly surpassed the number of India shipments made by Samsung and captured a market share of 25 p.c within the fourth quarter of 2017. This was up from the 9 p.c Xiaomi had within the fourth quarter of 2016 and two p.c increased than the share of Samsung in the identical quarter.
Could 2018: Recordsdata for IPO on the Hong Kong Inventory Change
Xiaomi lastly kicked off its initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Inventory Change in Could 2018 with an goal to boost $6.1 billion (roughly Rs. 45,900 crores). This was considerably decrease than the preliminary plan of pulling in about $10 billion (roughly Rs. 75,300 crores).
January 2019: Launches Redmi Go as its first telephone based mostly on Android Go
Though Xiaomi was common for its pocket-friendly smartphones since its inception, the corporate partnered with Google in January final yr to launch the Redmi Go as its most affordable smartphone yet. The Redmi Go is predicated on Google’s Android Go programme. It was launched in India at a beginning worth of Rs. 4,499, although it is at present available at an even lesser price of Rs. 4,299 now.
September 2019: Sells over 100 million telephones in India in 5 years
Many individuals in India do not know Xiaomi however are very properly conscious of its Mi and Redmi manufacturers. This itself reveals how the corporate managed to develop its smartphone market within the nation. Having stated that, the corporate led by Manu Kumar Jain in September final yr introduced that it sold over 100 million phones in the Indian market since its debut in July 2014. The rationale behind the convincing gross sales quantity is just not solely the affordability of gadgets but in addition the advertising ways and online-offline gross sales methods that the corporate utilized within the nation.
November 2019: Unveils first smartwatch
Xiaomi is notorious for copying the design of Apple merchandise and one nice instance of that’s the Mi Watch. The corporate brought the Mi Watch as its first smartwatch in November final yr with an aluminium alloy body and a digital crown-like button that’s paying homage to the Apple Watch. The Mi Watch additionally runs Google’s Wear OS with a tweaked MIUI on prime.
January 2020: Makes Poco a separate entity
Much like its homegrown rivals together with BBK Electronics that owns Oppo, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus in addition to Huawei that has Honor as a sub-brand, Xiaomi began embracing the technique of capturing a wider market via its Redmi and Poco manufacturers. The Poco F1 debuted as the primary telephone from the Poco sub-brand in August 2018. Nonetheless, the corporate determined to spin off Poco as a separate entity for the Indian market in January this yr. The brand new firm additionally just lately introduced the Poco X2 as its first telephone out of the brand new technique.
OnePlus 8 leaks look thrilling however when will the telephones launch in India? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly expertise podcast, which you’ll subscribe to through Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button under.
About The Author
