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Xiaomi Arrives As Top Smartphone Seller In China

New submitter redseo writes Xiaomi, known as the Apple of China, and recently enjoying its new-found fame and glory in the Indian market, has achieved yet another milestone. It has overtaken Samsung, to become China's best selling smartphone manufacturer, in Q2 2014. Xiaomi sold total of 15 million smartphones in China in Q2, which is a three-fold increase from a year ago. That's pretty good for a company founded only four years ago, with no stores of its own. (And though Xiaomi's phones are not widely sold in the U.S., they're offered by third-party sellers on Amazon and elsewhere; CNet has mostly good things to say about the company's Mi 3.)

13 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good for them by CanHasDIY · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Doesn't matter what country you pick you're going to be spied on,

    This is likely true, although there is likely merit to being spied on by a foreign government.

    Namely, as a US citizen, I don't have to worry about the Chinese government taking my freedom away because I did/said something they don't like.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  2. Re:Yeah yeah by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 2

    Wait, which "best selling car" in China are you talking about? Because Buick has consistently been one of the best (if not the best) selling car manufacturers in China since before WWII.

    --
    My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
  3. Re:Yeah yeah by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2

    Well, I can believe in Xiaomi winning on quality. Their phones are quite powerful, yet reasonably priced. I have a coworker who swears by the brand and from what I've seen I definitely like his Mi2 better than my Galaxy S3. Are they the alpha and omega of phone development? Definitely not. But they certainly are a welcome addition to the high-end smartphone market.

    Well, they're better than Samsung, which admittedly isn't terribly difficult.

    --
    USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  4. Re:Good for them by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's a quite naive point of view.

    Really? When was the last time an American was arrested on American soil by the Chinese police?

    Even if you spend time in both countries (as I do), you have a far greater chance of being arrested by American police. On a per capita basis, American citizens are four times as likely to be incarcerated as Chinese citizens.

  5. Re:Yeah yeah by s.petry · · Score: 2

    Compared to what? Banned products, or products that the Chines government limits to ensure that Chinese companies are profitable? China is not a free market, so any claim that something is a number one seller is obviously skewed.

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    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  6. Re:Yeah yeah by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    China might not be a technically a "free market," but if there's any bit of electronics you want to buy there, it's available for sale even if it is officially banned.

    Video game consoles in China have been officially banned since 2001. Guess what I see when I go to the mall in China? Xbox 360s, Playstation 3s, Wiis. I've been told that even next gen consoles like the PS4 has made it to storefronts in China before the official launch date (through gray market means via Hong Kong).

    At a macro level, China is not a "free market" but rather a managed economy. At the micro level, though, everything is for sale.

    --
    My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
  7. Re:Good for them by CanHasDIY · · Score: 3, Informative

    Chelsea Manning, Leonard Peltier, The Cuban 5, likely at least a handful of Gitmo inmates, and of course all those Occupiers who didn't actually commit crimes.

    Oh, and every pothead in jail, ever (although in fairness, they're incarcerated for doing something harmless the government doesn't like, as opposed to saying stuff).

    Aaron Swartz would be there too, if not for... extenuating circumstances.

    Surely you don't believe that there's no such thing as a political prisoner in the for-profit prison industry, do you? If so, that tells me that you don't know enough about the topic to be commenting from a position of knowledge, but rather one of ignorance.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  8. Re:cute company name does it all by Ken_g6 · · Score: 2

    Even better, the name is pronounced like the English "show me". (Click the listen button on Google Translate.) Which should be easy to spin into a very visual English ad campaign.

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    (T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
  9. Is that a thing? by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    Apple has the lions share at the top end...Google may eject them from the Android market..Tablet sales are slowing

    There is no top end or bottom end...there is just a market for smartphones it is why we are discussing a Chinese branded(not just made in China like the iphone). The proof is we are in an article discussing a phone company as the new Apple...at a fraction of the price ...with more premium features.

    Google cannot eject Samsung from the Android market. In fact quite the opposite Google for mow is reliant on Samsung. In fact tomorrow Samsung could produce an Android phone without Google like Amazon and Microsoft...

    iPad sales only are slowing. As we continue to say there is no high end low end of the the market...just the market, and Apple have simply priced themselves out of it. Tablets continue to sell very well. If we include the new phablet market..then even faster than ever.

  10. Re:Yeah yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Compared to what? Banned products, or products that the Chines government limits to ensure that Chinese companies are profitable?

    I have the Redmi Note, bought via Singapore, and it's easily the best phone I have used (my job means I get a lot of phones so at hand I have iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, Nokia 625, a couple of Blackberries, and a few assorted other Androids).

    The thing is, on specs alone it's a decent phone - the 1.7GHz octacore CPU isn't the absolute fastest in the world, but it's more than capable of running anything currently available on Android very smoothly and without hesitation. 2GB RAM means multitasking is no problem, and the screen is bright and clear. MIUI 5 is clear, nice to look at and has many thoughtful shortcuts and UI helpers that make it very engaging to use. It's clearly built as a workhorse rather than a prestige product, with a lot of plastic and some flex, but the design is nice enough and the build quality reasonable. It all works quite seamlessly, with very few shortfalls and irritations, so the Redmi Note is nicer to use than phones like the iPhones, Nokias and Galaxies.

    More than that though, is that it cost less than AU$180 outright, so compared to any other sub-$200 phone, it's astonishing. It deserves to be a best seller in any market, not just China, and I suspect companies like Samsung, HTC, LG, Microsoft and Apple will be looking at it with real fear in their hearts.

  11. Re:Good for them by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 3, Informative

    Doesn't matter what country you pick you're going to be spied on

    With the Xiaomi this is especially the case, it sends a pile of private information on you back to Beijing, China. So it's not just the generic spooks, it's also the manufacturer who's spying on you.

  12. If you think that NSA spying is great... by Squidlips · · Score: 2

    then this phone would really be truly wonderful

  13. Re:Good for them by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

    The US's push west in the 1800s wasn't imperialistic. It was expansionistic. That's what China did (or is doing). That you are too dumb to see a difference doesn't mean there isn't one. And China isn't going outside the bounds of areas that were previously China (yes, some debate exists on those points)