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

[Danfango]

the Windows phones of the era were dying in uselessness. RIM was still using a side mounted wheel on their basic phones. The interface and approach to making the smart phone usable was so radically different that yes, they pretty much can claim to have invented it. Sure, there were items on the market that sorta kinda maybe looked the same, but the holistic approach was so well I prime Ted that it was a radical departure in the experience of using a phone.

Yes this. I had an O2 XDA II for a bit which was a smartphone. Before that a palm Treo 180G. Also a smartphone.

What Apple did was produce something that wasn’t an absolute heap of dung to use like those were.

Also at the same time Android was coming on the scene and what it basically consisted of was a blackberry rip off. Until Google ripped off apple’s touch interface.

I think all the innovation Apple did was in the interface really. It was vastly different to anything else.

Also Unix and NeXTstep on a phone basically was awesome 🤣

 

[Martyimac]

I’m not being sarcastic. Apple did not invent the smartphone because smartphones existed before the iPhone (as you acknowledge in your post). They made a really good line of smartphones.

The only way you could think they invented the category is if you don’t know what invent means.

For us ignorant folks. You keep claiming apple didn't invent the smartphone but you don't tell us who or what. Facts matter so educate us or go into the ignore list.

 

[Waxhead138]

16 billion is a lot of money to spend on what will be surely nothing more than an iPhone knock off

Lol....I was just thinking...."If you steal customers the same way intellectual property is stolen in China, then you have a chance."

 

[Jaymes]

I’m not being sarcastic. Apple did not invent the smartphone because smartphones existed before the iPhone (as you acknowledge in your post). They made a really good line of smartphones.

The only way you could think they invented the category is if you don’t know what invent means.

Agreed. Before iPhone, there were several other players. I would say the biggest in the US would have been Blackberry, or as it was commonly referred to back in the day, "Crackberry", because people were addicted to their Blackberry smartphones.

 

[itcomesinwaves]

Xiaomi intends to step up its challenge to Apple, the company's founder announced this week (via South China Morning Post).

Xiaomi founder and chief executive Lei Jun said on Chinese social media platform Weibo that the company will specifically focus on the high-end segment of the global smartphone market in an effort to directly rival Apple, attempting to fill the void left by Huawei. Huawei was previously China's largest smartphone vendor before being forced to pull out of the U.S. market. Lei explained that Xiaomi seeks to become the world's largest smartphone vendor within three years.

"[We aim to] fully benchmark against Apple in [terms of] product and experience, and become China's biggest high-end brand in the next three years," Lei added. He went on to describe competition with Apple in the high-end smartphone segment as "a war of life and death" that Xiaomi must overcome.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, Apple overtook Vivo to become the top smartphone brand in China for the first time in six years. Simultaneously, Apple became the leading smartphone vendor in the world, with one in every five smartphones sold being an iPhone.

Like many companies, Xiaomi has struggled with supply chain issues over the past two years, which has hindered the company's expansion. Nevertheless, in the second quarter of 2021, Apple's iPhone sales were briefly surpassed by Xiaomi for the first time.

Xiaomi reportedly intends to attract more customers by distinguishing itself from other major Chinese Android smartphone brands that are also targeting Apple's lucrative high-end segment by focusing on user experience. This will involve 20,000 new retail stores in China over the next three years, adding to the 10,000 stores that it currently operates in the country. The company is also investing almost $16 billion in research and development over the next five years.

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

Lol.

It doesn’t have quite the same ring “iPhone killer,” but the sentiment is there.

 

[javanate]

They will just copy Apple, and make it unpatriotic to have anything else. They won’t change their branding because we are basically in a cold war again and everything has become a pissing contest like the last cold war.

 

[Jaymes]

For us ignorant folks. You keep claiming apple didn't invent the smartphone but you don't tell us who or what. Facts matter so educate us or go into the ignore list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone

 

[BF1M]

They made the first smart phone that anyone actually wanted to buy. I had Windows CE phones before Apple created the iPhone. Before the iPhone, people having cell phones were an extremely niche market where only business people and those in high tech had one (for me, it was being in high tech). After the iPhone, everyone has one, including little kids. It's better to say Apple created the modern smart phone. What passed for smart phones before the iPhone was crap. I had many different ones and I could never mention my phone without a curse word since they were so bad. Apple made the smart phone popular and mainstream.

….that’s not true at all. Cell phones were common place in 2007 before the iPhone…

 

[tobybrut]

Apple has never wanted to be #1 in sales. They've only wanted to make the most money. In that respect, Apple is by far #1. Apple makes the vast majority of profits in the smart phone market, in some years over 90%. Good luck, Xiaomi, in dethroning the king. Even if they succeed in becoming #1 in unit sales, they won't be anywhere close to #1 in profits. Apple will continue laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[TracerAnalog]

Good. Competition gets me a better iPhone faster 😝

 

[MysticCow]

Well, the CCP already stole all of the "trade secrets," so I wouldn't be surprised at all by what they will push as "new and innovative."

 

[Waxhead138]

This guy has been watching too much CCP propaganda and thinks he's coming off way cooler than he really is. I bet he was the kid in high school that takes gym class way too seriously.

"Nobody makes me bleed my own blood LeFleur!"

 

[TracerAnalog]

….that’s not true at all. Cell phones were common place in 2007 before the iPhone…

Yup. Even ‘smart’ phones. I’ve had a few fairly good and sleek windows phones back in the day. The iPhone was something else though!

 

[BeefCake 15]

Jokes aside, setting up a company with a mantra or mission statement of destroying another company is a recipe for failure. The problem with Xiaomi is they're not even sure what their raison d'etre is to begin with beyond making money. Start with Why as Simon Sinek would say.

 

[mazz0]

If you want to rival Apple, define a new product category. Just creating another high-quality iPhone clone impresses nobody.

 

[Celtic-moniker]

Yes this. I had an O2 XDA II for a bit which was a smartphone. Before that a palm Treo 180G. Also a smartphone.

What Apple did was produce something that wasn’t an absolute heap of dung to use like those were.

Also at the same time Android was coming on the scene and what it basically consisted of was a blackberry rip off. Until Google ripped off apple’s touch interface.

I think all the innovation Apple did was in the interface really. It was vastly different to anything else.

Also Unix and NeXTstep on a phone basically was awesome 🤣

It’s funny you mention this. As I was writing this I kept thinking about my O2 that I had around that time. It was frankly a mess of a phone to use. sure, at a glance it had a passing resemblance to the iPhone. In use I was using a pin sized stylus to operate a hideous keyboard That often simply didn’t work.

 

[genovelle]

Apple did not basically invent the smartphone.

Yes they did. The modern smartphone did not exist before Apple introduced the IPhone in January of 2007. What proceeded it was washed away almost immediately and it took 3 years and blatantly copying them for anyone to catch-up to them.

If they hadn’t done so effectively the Nokias horrible phones would still be winning

 

[clevins]

….that’s not true at all. Cell phones were common place in 2007 before the iPhone…

Jesus, people...

Apple invented the *modern* smartphone. Of course there were CE devices and Blackberry and for a bit, Treo, but those were "smartphones" only in contrast to the utterly basic stuff most of the rest of us had which were simpl mobile phones that ran no apps and aside from a contacts list built in, weren't that much different from the phones we had at home.

Yes, cell phones were relatively common for about a decade before 2007 but what everyone calls a smartphone today is absolutely a category invented by Apple.

You can divide cell phones into three broad buckets. Basic phones which were voice devices with some rudimentary texting perhaps. Intermediate 'smart' phones which did email and SMS and which ran a small stable of apps that relied on a keybaord and stylus for the most part. And modern smartphones which are powerful computers with full touch interfaces and which support sophisticated apps of any kind.

There was a kind of transition before Apple launched the App Store, but in broad terms, that's how the market has evolved.

 

[dugbug]

I can't wait to see their xiaomiGoggles a few months after apple's

 

[BF1M]

Yes they did. The modern smartphone did not exist before Apple introduced the IPhone in January of 2007. What proceeded it was washed away almost immediately and it took 3 years and blatantly copying them for anyone to catch-up to them.

If they hadn’t done so effectively the Nokias horrible phones would still be winning

Again, no. Smartphones did exist and some, Blackberry, were doing financially well.

 

[BF1M]

Jesus, people...

Apple invented the *modern* smartphone. Of course there were CE devices and Blackberry and for a bit, Treo, but those were "smartphones" only in contrast to the utterly basic stuff most of the rest of us had which were simply mobile phones (i.e. they ran no apps and aside from a contacts list built in, werent that much different from the phones we had at home)

Yes, cell phones were relatively common for about a decade before 2007 but what everyone calls a smartphone today is absolutely a category invented by Apple.

I was replying to exactly what he said. That cellphones were niche and only for people in ”high tech”….whatever that means. I had been carrying a cell phone for YEARS before iPhone was ever a wet dream for Steve Jobs. I have the enormous bills somewhere to prove it.


You are completely wrong. Smartphones did exist.

 

[DotCom2]

Apple has always said they don't want to be the biggest, they want to be the BEST!
(That's what they've said anyway.)

 

[JoForumBlueGold]

i'd say samsung is better

I have a lot more respect for Samsung now than ten years ago. Their products have much better build quality than they used to and don't really fall into that "iPhone clone" stereotype anymore. Their work on the folding phone is pretty good, too.
Their only knock on them is the petty advertising they do sometimes, but it's more like trash talk all in good fun and Apple does the same thing too.

 

[newyorksole]

Chinese companies won't see a penny from me

I meeeean. They technically do lol.

 

[Danfango]

Jesus, people...

Apple invented the *modern* smartphone. Of course there were CE devices and Blackberry and for a bit, Treo, but those were "smartphones" only in contrast to the utterly basic stuff most of the rest of us had which were simply mobile phones (i.e. they ran no apps and aside from a contacts list built in, werent that much different from the phones we had at home)

Yes, cell phones were relatively common for about a decade before 2007 but what everyone calls a smartphone today is absolutely a category invented by Apple.

Actually you're talking complete rubbish there.

I developed a delivery POD system which ran on GPRS connected Windows CE handsets back in 2004. It was written in an entirely managed language (C#) and handled delivery scheduling, proof of delivery (signature entered by finger or stylus on the device) and worked on temporary connections. It was actually really really easy to write custom stuff for your smartphone back then. That's nearly 20 years ago now but people don't realise that the technology maturity was pretty high then!

The important things Apple did from an innovation front were:

1. They redefined the user interface with gestures, multitouch and new semantics.
2. They opened the market up for consumers and end users.
3. Actually produce a device that didn't look like a turd.
4. Break the mobile providers control over everything.

When the iPhone came out you couldn't actually even install apps on it. That was poo poo'ed and laughed at my every single business out there with thousands of deployed mobile Windows CE handsets.

What Apple did was effectively build on a strong foundation and iterate into every other market rapidly.

Edit: to point out, the iPhone was super cheap when it came out. The CE handsets we were deploying to couriers were 5x the price of an iPhone and lasted 9-12 months in the field.