Xiaomi Pledges 'War of Life and Death' Against Apple to Become World's Biggest Smartphone Brand

[iGMX]

From my experience owning various Xiaomi phones and devices in the past 6 years, they will never add up to nothing more than a second-rate copy cat. Whatever advancements they make in hardware or device build quality is severely hampered by low quality software, no matter how hard they try to paint them with Apple-like gloss. The only reason people buy their phones is because of their pricing, and now they want to go premium? Maybe they should fix their software first.

 

[Suicidy]

Chinese companies won't see a penny from me

Same. I will not Be funding my own annihilation.

 

[PC_tech]

At the end of the day, I’m just saying there exist far greater hobbies than arguing vigorously over things that don’t actually matter with strangers on the internet for hours on end. Take care.

Yet that’s exactly what you and others do, everyday…..

 

[PC_tech]

I think giving Apple competition is great. Then I realize Apple priority won’t be a device in your hand, but one that sits in front of your eyes. And how they’re so much farther ahead than the competition. They should put the money and time on the future, not beating Apple in the present.

So much farther ahead in what exactly?

 

[Nanboe]

I am reading the comments and sometimes I think americans forget that there is a huge world outside USA.

Xiaomi products are getting better every year both on hardware and software. They are very well balanced between price and quality. They have potential to become huge.

The only issue that they have is the privacy part. But again in US you have the US cloud act that allows the state to get access to my private data. Looking at this from an european perspective US is not that far away from China.

I will like to have a european product as i will feel more protected, but european innovation is ZERO!

My point is that Xiaomi is already selling medium quality products very well, I don’t see why they will not get into the high-end market.

And by the way apple service quality in most european countries sucks so again maybe this is a term of comparison in US but not valid in the rest of the world.

Samsung was for many years considered an Apple clone company on the phone market, but now product development is more innovative than what Apple did over the past years.

 

[I7guy]

So much farther ahead in what exactly?

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[Abazigal]

I am reading the comments and sometimes I think americans forget that there is a huge world outside USA.

Xiaomi products are getting better every year both on hardware and software. They are very well balanced between price and quality. They have potential to become huge.

The only issue that they have is the privacy part. But again in US you have the US cloud act that allows the state to get access to my private data. Looking at this from an european perspective US is not that far away from China.

I will like to have a european product as i will feel more protected, but european innovation is ZERO!

My point is that Xiaomi is already selling medium quality products very well, I don’t see why they will not get into the high-end market.

And by the way apple service quality in most european countries sucks so again maybe this is a term of comparison in US but not valid in the rest of the world.

Samsung was for many years considered an Apple clone company on the phone market, but now product development is more innovative than what Apple did over the past years.

Living in Singapore, many of my friends were initially quite enthusiastic about xiaomi in the beginning, but that excitement quickly wore off when they realised that cheap price came at the expense of cheaper build quality and a fairly laggy OS. In short, you get what you pay for, and my friends have no qualms about paying more for a better user experience.

Apple continues to have the advantage of an integrated ecosystem because they are pretty much the only company willing to invest in having the full ecosystem of hardware, software and services (much as some people think that Apple should just dump services and focus on hardware). I predict Xiaomi will find themselves ending up like pretty much every other android OEM. Razor thin margins, with little differentiation from other android handsets.

 

[webkit]

It is very interesting that Apple managed to capture such a huge amount of sales there vs the homegrown brands, a part of me thinks it’s going to be hard for companies like Xiaomi and BBK to compete with Apple if their own home country prefers Apple. I wonder if we will see China go the way of Japan where Apple has a huge slice of the market despite Japan having had some fabulous phone manufacturers who have seemingly begun to slow their global availability of their phones globally.

Apple had an unusually strong Q4 in China last year (thanks in part to U.S. sanctions against Huawei) but that doesn't mean it will last, especially since it looks like Xiaomi is setting its sights on Apple.

For the year, Vivo and Oppo (both part of BBK) were the two top selling smartphone brands. BBK which has brands Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus, Realme, etc. will be tough for Apple OR Xiaomi to beat in China.

 

[SAIRUS]

Well, that escalated quickly.

I mean, that really got out of hand fast!

 

[BF1M]

You have simplistic idea of what an invention is. You see it as something that must be created in a vacuum and if it has any aspect of it from the past it’s simply an “evolution”. The telephone wasn’t an invention because the telegraph existed before it. “It’s all just stuff going over wires”, you would say. The television wasn’t an invention because the radio existed beforehand. “It’s just stuff being broadcast over the air, they’re practically the same thing”, you would say. The airplane wasn’t an invention because hot air balloons and blimps already existed. “It’s just stuff flying through the air, the hot air balloon did it first, they’re just copying that”, you would say. The automobile wasn’t an invention because carriages and buggies were around first. “They’re just replacing the horse with an engine”. Additionally, you would claim automobiles weren’t the first things to have wheels, seats and windows as parts. The automobile is simply an evolution the of the house and human pulled flatbeds, you would claim.

I guess that leaves us with what? Silly Putty?

Um, yea…..


I….um…..


Not really sure what that was but Apple still didn’t invent the smartphone….

 

[pshufd]

I don't even look at non-Apple phones after our experiences with Android support back in the Nexus days. If you're not going to provide updates for more than one or two years, then I have no interest in your hardware product. I replaced my iPhone 7+ with the iPhone 13 mini. The launch of the iPhone 7 was in 2016. That phone is still getting updates (I use it as a backup phone with its own separate phone number).

If Xiaomi wants to really take on Apple, then they should develop their own operating system and provide the features and benefits of Apple's ecosystem where software plays a major part.

 

[pankajdoharey]

Wrong Bet, Samsung is the biggest SmartPhone maker, then Huawei. Vivo, Oppo, One plus are giants in Android ecosystem. Just associate your name with apple to look like the underdog? Meh!

 

[svish]

Will surely be copying Apple in their product designs.

 

[MowgliWolf]

Bit of a silly business target isn’t it…
Not looking to innovate or iterate, or even to gain better efficiency vs performance. Rather, compete and go after Apple. Really narrows the possibilities of what they could achieve otherwise

 

[TehFalcon]

I have a Xiaomi phone I use to mess around with android on, but they still aren't on the level of Apple, they want to overtake Apple in the smartphone world, but you can't even buy a Xiaomi phone at any carrier. lol

 

[44267547]

Well, any company can make any comment they want in terms of where they project themselves to be in the future, but those are just merely words that don’t add up to anything without having evidentiary value.

No doubt Xiaomi is a contender in the smartphone industry, especially being predominant in other countries, but I don’t think they have the leverage to overtake Apple. And if they were to, I don’t see that happening even in this decade, given Apple isn’t really selling just a ‘smart phone’, they’re selling the experience through their entire ecosystem that segues to the iPhone.

 

[0924487]

But does it have minesweeper built in?

That would be an optional extra.

 

[miric]

Wat? I’m curious if they managed to fix proximity sensor issue. So pathetic statement.

 

[0924487]

I think you’re drinking the K.O.O.L.A.I.D.

And probably most of the source code was stolen.

You do realize the Chinese everywhere are pretty good at STEM, right? E.g., even in Stanford CS school, etc.

They have the money, the talent, the market and the political will.

Also, they can’t steal something that didn’t exist before. The concept and the predecessors, sure, it’s all borrowed from somewhere. Macintosh GUI was borrowed from somewhere too, it wasn’t an Apple invention, but it’s Apple who put it together.

 

[0924487]

Xiaomi 👏 can’t 👏 invent 👏 anything 👏 without 👏 ripping 👏 off 👏 Apple.

If they really want to do this, then they should care about the customer experience and what that means today (increasingly, privacy) rather than just trying to best or copy the competition. Bring something unique that improves the world.

As long as there is still something good left to rip off, there is no reason not to. It’s more efficient and less risky. Why reinvent the wheel when you haven’t even mastered the original design?

When there is nothing left, that’s when the creative journey begins.

 

[pshufd]

You do realize the Chinese everywhere are pretty good at STEM, right? E.g., even in Stanford CS school, etc.

They have the money, the talent, the market and the political will.

Also, they can’t steal something that didn’t exist before. The concept and the predecessors, sure, it’s all borrowed from somewhere. Macintosh GUI was borrowed from somewhere too, it wasn’t an Apple invention, but it’s Apple who put it together.

Xerox, the copier company.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Not only do they unapologetically copy the iPhone, but didn’t the CEO even copy Steve Job’s look on stage? Pathetic. All they’ve innovated on is new ways to copy.

 

[pshufd]

Not only do they unapologetically copy the iPhone, but didn’t the CEO even copy Steve Job’s look on stage? Pathetic. All they’ve innovated on is new ways to copy.

I stopped even looking at non-iPhones many years ago.

I couldn't get past getting three Android phones with 0 to 2 updates and that was it.

 

[gwhizkids]

You do realize the Chinese everywhere are pretty good at STEM, right? E.g., even in Stanford CS school, etc.

They have the money, the talent, the market and the political will.

Also, they can’t steal something that didn’t exist before. The concept and the predecessors, sure, it’s all borrowed from somewhere. Macintosh GUI was borrowed from somewhere too, it wasn’t an Apple invention, but it’s Apple who put it together.

That’s very different from hacking into proprietary data storage and taking specs and drawings. Which is what they do. Over and over and over. Don’t make excuses for them. They are an evil regime.

 

[spiderman0616]

Classic CEO rhetoric when starting to lose market share….this confirms further Apple winning in China

This kind of reminds me of the RIM CEOs when it was obvious that BlackBerry was a dead-end platform. They doubled down, swearing that if they just did their best like they'd always done before, they'd get all their marketshare back in the smartphone business.

It starts to happen in a trickle, and then suddenly the company you founded is bankrupt and a footnote in history. When CEOs talk like this guy is talking, it always reminds me of RIM or 90s Apple.