Goodbye Xiaomi

[Zirel]

The "Apple of China" is in serious trouble.

Sales in China of smartphones from Xiaomi, a once red-hot Chinese hardware startup touted as the country's answer to Apple, fell by a whopping 38% in the second quarter of 2016 year-on-year, according to new data from the research firm IDC.

Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source

This is what happens when you sell a lot of phones without margin, and then, try to have a tiny little bit of margin. Someone else will try your game, and consumers will go after the better bang/buck, because you have a forgettable product.

Let's see what the press was saying 1-2 years ago:

• Why Xiaomi Is Apple’s Biggest Threat In China (And Soon, Everywhere Else)
  
• Xiaomi - From China's Apple to China's Samsung?
  
• This is the Apple of China
  
• “Apple is gone!” he shouted after the unveiling. “Apple and Samsung are gone!”"
  According to WSJ
  
• People just couldn’t bring themselves to believe that a Chinese company actually could be a world innovator, could build amazingly high quality products, and by the way sell them at half the price of a high-end Apple or Samsung device.”
  Bloomberg Interview
  
• Xiaomi, Not Apple, Is Changing the Smartphone Industry

 

[keysofanxiety]

You're absolutely right. If your company's mentality is ripping off aesthetics and undercutting pricing of other companies, there'll just be another who comes along that does it even cheaper. Then your incredible short-term growth will go down the pan. They're not leaders. They're copycats.

They enjoy the fruits of other people's hard efforts. People and companies put years of work and millions of dollars into making something; through failed prototypes, discussions on materials, and troubled manufacturing processes. Then when they finally achieve something great — something simple, where you can't imagine a product looking or feeling like anything else — other companies will shamelessly rip it off.

Like or loathe Xiaomi for what they do, you'd be a collosal fool to argue that they're not flagrantly ripping off Apple.

 

[Zirel]

You're absolutely right. If your company's mentality is ripping off aesthetics and undercutting pricing of other companies, there'll just be another who comes along that does it even cheaper. Then your incredible short-term growth will go down the pan. They're not leaders. They're copycats.

They enjoy the fruits of other people's hard efforts. People and companies put years of work and millions of dollars into making something; through failed prototypes, discussions on materials, and troubled manufacturing processes. Then when they finally achieve something great — something simple, where you can't imagine a product looking or feeling like anything else — other companies will shamelessly rip it off.

Like or loathe Xiaomi for what they do, you'd be a collosal fool to argue that they're not flagrantly ripping off Apple.

Notwithstanding the millions employees like Jony Ive and Marc Newson cost each month!

The worst part, for me, was their arrogance: “Apple is gone!” he shouted after the unveiling. “Apple and Samsung are gone!”

Imagine if Tim Cook just went on stage and said "Microsoft is gone", or "Google is gone".

 

[keysofanxiety]

The worst part, for me, was their arrogance: “Apple is gone!” he shouted after the unveiling.

They said that?! Ha. Without Apple, they wouldn't know what to rip off. Jump to a parallel universe without Apple right now — Xiaomi would be making products identical to Samsung's slide-keyboard phones. I'd question if they've ever had an organic spark of inspiration.