The Rise Of Xiaomi
Xiaomi only a few years ago was a very little known and niche brand, chattering by the majority to low-income markets with cheap devices. Today, they stand at the top as the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, trading blows with Samsung to take the top spot.
So, what happened, how did the obscure company who made phones only for certain markets, rise to take on the biggest the business has to offer. In the below, we discuss the rise of Xiaomi and how it came to be the biggest phone manufacturer in the world.
The Fall Of Huawei
Due to an unfavorable political climate and other uncontrollable factors, mid 20119 saw Huawei no longer producing new phones with access to Google services. While Huawei still makes very usable phones, a lot of people have become accustomed to and integrated with the Google ecosystem.
This saw Huawei’s market share start slipping more and more each month, with more market share to capture for other companies. In this time, looking at Samsung’s release schedule and line-up, it is clear Samsung had the scramble to try and fill the newly created market void. All the efforts were just not enough, though, as Xiaomi was perfectly positioned and supplied the right type of devices to fill the market void perfectly.
Why Xiaomi?
Xiaomi phones supply what is considered to be the best cost to performance of any mobile device today. A fantastic ecosystem while still having access to Google services is set to be a winner in the eyes of the consumer. Xiaomi’s devices are cheap while still being good quality and offering all the features of other flagships. This cost to performance factor plays an especially important role as the world fell into a pandemic.
In the pandemic, saving money became significant to a huge part of the world population, most people no longer had excess money for high-end flagship devices, the cost to performance ratio of Xiaomi devices became crucial to the company’s success.
Range
In trying to expand the ranges of phones and market presence, some phone manufacturers end up with convoluted ranges which are difficult and sometimes frustrating to fully understand, especially when you just want to enjoy real money gaming. Most people just want a good phone for their budget, understanding a full range to do that can be annoying at the best of times. Xiaomi has taken a different approach by having sub-brands to cater to different types of devices, there are 3 main sub-brands for Xiaomi mobile phones
- Redmi – Redmi is Xiaomi’s sub company that focuses on budget phones, these are in no way bad phones but are the cheapest of the line-up.
- Poco – Poco is Xiaomi’s mid-tier brand, focusing on middle of the road devices for the average market. They do still supply flagships as well in the form of the Poco F series, which are fantastic devices.
- Xiaomi – The self-named Xiaomi sub brand is considered to be the flagship brand. While each sub brand does provide a bit of everything, the Xiaomi sub brand supplies the real flagship phones, set to take on flagships from apple and Samsung alike.
Will Xiaomi Stay At The Top?
Xiaomi has set its stake in the market and is a leading player in the smartphone field, but nobody is to say if it will stay that way. With repeating criticism of censorship from the Chinese government, one wrong move from Xiaomi could spell bad news for the company.
For now, though, Xiaomi supplies the best cost to quality and performance ratio available in the market, which will stay in demand for a long time to come.