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

[Quu]

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.

I know China is big but this still surprised me. They already have 10K and intend to add another 20K on top of that. To put that in perspective there are 13,673 McDonalds fast food restaurants in the United States. Just think about how common it is to see a McDonalds and then imagine Apple Stores having that level of visibility.

 

[clevins]

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.

I've had cell phones since 1996. MOST people did not unless they were used for business. And if you really don't know what high tech meant and means, perhaps you should recuse yourself before posting anymore

 

[siddavis]

Replace Xiaomi with China and Apple with US and whoa, I’m floored.

 

[Wildkraut]

Chinese companies won't see a penny from me

Yeah? LOL! Flip your iPhone, but take a seat first.

 

[MacBH928]

reminds me of that guy who said Palm Pre eats iphones for breakfast

these guys do not understand. its not the hardware, its the software. Can you make better software than iOS?

 

[FindingAvalon]

No kidding. What a daft comment.

They did invent the modern incarnation of it.

 

[mmurphy123]

So they want to triple the number of stores in the next 2 years...

Companies that try to grow that fast typically tank.

 

[FindingAvalon]

So they iterated on the smartphone then.

They made a really good phone, but that’s not inventing the smartphone category.

Way to miss the point.

 

[BF1M]

I've had cell phones since 1996. MOST people did not unless they were used for business. And if you really don't know what high tech meant and means, perhaps you should recuse yourself before posting anymore

Says the guy saying Apple invented a product already on the market for years…Put the kool aid down my friend.

I will say this: cell phones were not a rare sight when i was in high school and I’m not on the young side. Sure not everyone had them…

 

[BF1M]

They did invent the modern incarnation of it.

Maybe, that statement is open to interpretation. Regardless, that’s not what he said…

 

[clevins]

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.

And how many people used that? Also READ WHAT YOU'RE REPLYING TO. I know there were CE devices and sure there were some people who did what you did but very few and the apps where incredibly niche or basic or both then.

It's why I qualified my claim with 'modern smartphone' as the category that exists today bears no resemblance to the crap that was CE, Blackberry and the like.

 

[anthogag]

Apple is not Xiaomi’s “benchmrk”, it’s their template.

$16 billion is a lot to spend on reverse engineering and bribes.

 

[boss.king]

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 developed that it was a radical departure in the experience of using a phone.

"A radical departure" is not what inventing is. Like I've said a couple of times now, they made really good phones. They drastically improved the user experience for the average consumer. They did not invent the smartphone.

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 still not inventing the category. Popularising? Sure. Drastically improving? Absolutely. Inventing? No.

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.

Please, put me on your ignore list. That's not the threat you think it is. You can Google the history of the smartphone if you really want to learn more.

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.

Exactly.

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

Nope, they didn't. They did many things with regard to the smartphone category, but inventing it was not one of them.

 

[BF1M]

And how many people used that? Also READ WHAT YOU'RE REPLYING TO. I know there were CE devices and sure there were some people who did what you did but very few and the apps where incredibly niche or basic or both then.

It's why I qualified my claim with 'modern smartphone' as the category that exists today bears no resemblance to the crap that was CE, Blackberry and the like.

OP didn’t say modern. That was added later to support a comment that had no standing. Apple did not invent the smartphone. Period. No amount of wordplay will change that.

 

[Captain Trips]

If opening stores anywhere was good for expanding smartphones brand, the Ronald McPhone would be unbeatable now.

I know you are joking, but to that end the Windows Phones would be unbeatable by now. Except the Microsoft stores didn't do too well. ?

All snarkiness aside, I did like the Windows Phones I had, especially the Lumia 640XL.

 

[Abazigal]

Maybe, that statement is open to interpretation. Regardless, that’s not what he said…

It’s close enough for me. The smartphones pre-iphone and post-iPhone are like day and night and I think it‘s pretty clear what sparked that particular paradigm shift.

 

[boss.king]

Way to miss the point.

If the point is to reinvent history then sure, I totally missed it. I'm not a big fan of outright lies, unfortunately.

 

[ian87w]

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

Thing is, those stolen customers would very easily move on to another brand as Android is a commodity. This is why even in China, Apple is actually doing well as unlike the other Chinese OEMs, everything Apple just works with everything Apple. Chinese brands like Xiaomi is trying to copy the "ecosytem," but in the end, the base is Android and you don't need to stick to one brand for everything, and the experience can vary greatly.

 

[genovelle]

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.

I owned several Treo devices that claimed to be smart phones. They were not even close. They were a further copy of a concept they stole from Apple to begin with, Newton. It was the first portable smart device and was far more powerful and Apple was known to be working to incorporate the ability to make calls at one point.

Steve Jobs recognize the technology was not there yet and killed it 10 year before the iphone. Ironically, in 2015 I realized that Samsung was using the same horrible OGG video format to send videos made on their Note device as I had on a Treo from 10 years earlier.

 

[Danfango]

And how many people used that? Also READ WHAT YOU'RE REPLYING TO. I know there were CE devices and sure there were some people who did what you did but very few and the apps where incredibly niche or basic or both then.

It's why I qualified my claim with 'modern smartphone' as the category that exists today bears no resemblance to the crap that was CE, Blackberry and the like.

They had fully touch compatible Excel, Word, IE on them and handwriting recognition so I'm not sure I'd call them basic.

I don't think you used one. It wasn't that much of a leap from a usability perspective other than some of the Windows CE UI was fiddly for touch usage.

I only got an iPhone (not the first one!) because it meant I didn't have to carry my XDA and an iPod around at the same time.

 

[FindingAvalon]

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

So, but you don’t really understand what you’re talking about.

 

[BF1M]

It’s close enough for me. The smartphones pre-iphone and post-iPhone are like day and night and I think it‘s pretty clear what sparked that particular paradigm shift.

More like night and later that same night but yea, I get what you mean. I never said they didn‘t make the space better; just that they weren’t the first in it.

 

[BF1M]

So, but you don’t really understand what you’re talking about.

Translation: I’m(we) are right and now to the last stage of a dying argument: insults.

 

[MacNerd01]

“cheap spyware ridden android ****”

Very much true, which brings me to the question about

How do they intend to copy Apple’s approach on privacy?

They won’t. They’ll continue to steal data and listen to our conversations like every other android phone out there ?‍♂️

 

[FindingAvalon]

Maybe, that statement is open to interpretation. Regardless, that’s not what he said…

No, it isn’t