Not really much of a news article here. But since we are all Android fans, we all know Hugo Barra and his awesome presenting skills in getting us excited about new products and software. Just last week, we got some earth shaking news, that Hugo was leaving Android (well technically Google) and heading to China to work at XiaoMi. For those that don’t know XiaoMi is a pretty big Chinese manufacturer. They do make some great devices, but as you probably expected, they don’t make their way out of China much. However with the hire of Hugo Barra, that might be changing. Hugo is joining XiaoMi as the Vice President of XiaoMi Global. So that’s definitely a big jump from his position at Google.
Today, Hugo arrived at XiaoMi. Some employees within the company described his arrival as a superstar arrival. With many employees anxious to take pictures with him. Additionally, we’ve been told that Hugo received a XiaoMi MI3 which runs on MIUI. Which is expected to be his “work” phone, if not his personal phone as well. The company is expecting Hugo to make some tweaks and changes to MIUI.
XiaoMi CEO Lei Jun did confirm that Hugo will be at the XiaoMi 2013 launch event on September 5th in Beijing. But Lei Jun did not specify whether Hugo would be unveiling the XiaoMi Mi3 at the event or not. I think it would be great to see Hugo unveil the device later this week.
Previously, XiaoMi’s events have been very similar to Apple’s keynotes. And Lei Jun even dresses up like the late Steve Jobs with a T-Shirt and jeans. With the arrival of Hugo Barra, that might all change. Either way, with Hugo Barra now at XiaoMi, that’s going to be a competitor we need to keep an eye on. I’d sure love to see another manufacturer come into the States and compete with Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC and Motorola. Wouldn’t you?