Xiaomi is poised to become larger than Samsung
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi (pronounced “shiao-me”) has recently raised more than eyebrows in the technology community. After successful launches of a smartphone lineup and television media streamer, Xiaomi this week announced a successful round of venture funding that increased its valuation to a whopping $46 billion—more than Uber in the US—making it the most valuable venture-backed tech startup in the world. Executives from both Xiaomi and Apple have sparred over accusations of copycat product designs, but this perception hasn’t stopped the Chinese brand’s enormous growth. Xiaomi is already the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, bested only by Samsung in first place and Apple in second. But in a few years, Xiaomi is on pace to rival Samsung as the world’s largest Android company—and its aspirations are even bigger.
Xiaomi Mi4
Technology pundits have criticized how closely Xiaomi seems to model its product development approach—and even its presentations—off of Apple’s massively popular iOS lineup and impactful keynote addresses, right down to the “one more thing” intonation that made Steve Jobs’s speeches so memorable. Its flagship smartphone, the Mi4, closely mirrors modern design conventions and features industry-leading specs: a high-end Qualcomm chip, an 8-megapixel front camera, and 3 gigabytes of RAM. But Xiaomi isn’t interested in competing in one category: other product lines address nearly every competitive mobile space.
The MiPad rivals the iPad mini, MiBox competes with set-top streaming boxes like Apple TV or Nexus Player, and MiWiFi matches Apple’s AirPort Express base stations for low-barrier-to-entry wireless access. Moreover, Xiaomi offers a suite of MiCloud services that rival not only iCloud, but also Google’s industry-leading cloud services that are blocked for many in China. Xiaomi is poised to unilaterally match some of Silicon Valley’s biggest players in China, and is investing its $46 billion in new ways to make its ecosystem more cohesive.
Xiaomi MiPad
Another Android manufacturer doesn’t seem significant: brands and developers from any country can still develop apps that run on Samsung and Xiaomi products equally. But Xiaomi’s ace in the hole is its heavily customized platform, MIUI, which modifies Android uniquely for Xiaomi’s products. MIUI ships without the critically important Google Play Services, which offers Google a degree of control over Android experiences from various OEMs, and provides MiCloud services instead. As MIUI moves further and further away from stock Android, the operating system could be approached almost like Amazon’s forked Fire OS—a unique app store, a unique interface, and unique capabilities that require MIUI-specific app development.
As Xiaomi grows in marketshare and valuation, so too will grow its power and influence over the smartphone industry in China. Having already attracted former Android executive Hugo Barra away from Google, Xiaomi is positioning itself to become a massive global player in the mobile industry within the next few years. Soon, the question for consumers around the world might not be as simple as deciding between the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S5. And for brands and developers, the question of where to spend development resources might have a more compelling answer with MIUI.