It is interesting to note that Xiaomi is a relatively young company. The Chinese OEM was founded in 2010, and launched its first device in 2011. From then, it has gone from strength to strength, finding success in the Chinese domestic market. At one point, Xiaomi was the top smartphone manufacturer in China, beating established giants such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Lenovo and Apple. The international expansion was an incredible success in countries such as India; and in 2015, Xiaomi posted a record number of 71 million smartphone shipments.
However, competition increased for Xiaomi in 2016. The OEM lost the top spot in the Chinese smartphone market, and has stated that it plans to reclaim the position by 2020. The company’s smartphone shipments declined in 2016 as compared to 2015, and it failed to live up or beat its record of 71 million shipments. It admitted that 2016 had been a tough year, particularly in China, and vowed to improve its offline retail channels to take the fight to Oppo and Vivo.
Despite having a tough year in 2016, things have dramatically improved for Xiaomi this year. The company has grown at an exponential rate in the Indian smartphone market, to the point where it is now the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the country. Mega online sales with discounts during the festive season in India resulted in the company selling four million smartphones in a single month in the country. This also contributed to a record of 10 million smartphones being sold in all regions where the company has a presence. In China, the company has cemented its fourth-place in the market.
Because of the company’s incredible momentum, it was not improbable to expect the 71 million shipments target to be broken in 2017. Now, Donovan Sung, global spokesperson at Xiaomi, has stated in a press conference held in Beijing that the company will beat its 71 million shipments record set in 2015.
At a new Mi Home store launch, Mr. Sung stated to journalists that the company has reached 70 million shipments in the first 10 months of 2017. As there are still two months to go before the year ends, it is obvious that a new record will be set as new sales are on the horizon. Previously, Xiaomi had stated that it wanted to sell 90 million smartphones in 2017.
At the press conference, the company also revealed that its goals for 2018 were already set. It wants to reach 100 million smartphone shipments and join the Fortune 500 club.
Source: Tech163 (in Chinese) Via: GSMArena
0 comments:
Post a Comment