There’s no denying that Xiaomi has become and incredibly popular smartphone brand in a short time, but just how explosive their growth has been – and continues to be – is genuinely surprising. Nobody is surprised when Apple or Samsung shift Tens of Millions of units in a matter of months, because they’re both global behemoths with marketing budgets bigger than some companies’ profits. When a relative newcomer from China (one of the most fierce regions for competition) ships 11 Million smartphones in the first three months of the year? Yeah, that’s surprising.
Not only is it surprising that they’ve managed to sell so many in such a short space of time, but because last year they sold 18.7 Million smartphones throughout the entirety of 2013. Last year itself saw a growth of 160% from 2012, so to see how things keep on going up and up is very impressive, indeed. CEO of the company, Lei Jun, had previously said that the company would be looking to sell as many as 40 Million smartphones during the whole of 2014, but he’s since upgraded that prediction to 60 Million smartphones. Frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if we saw them sell even more than that.
It’s no doubt that the company’s recent global expansion has been a big help towards to keeping this momentum. Last year saw Google’s Hugo Barra join the Chinese firm as VP of Xiaomi Global and since then Xiaomi has started selling devices in Hong Kong, Taiwan and most recently Singapore. India is apparently next on their list and we’re hoping that the company keeps on heading West. There’s nowhere enough competition here in the West when it comes to smartphones and it’s currently dominated by Samsung when talking about Android. Xiaomi is a company that could shake things up, offering devices with some of the best specs at affordable prices a la the Nexus line, but without the compromise. With Xiaomi on track for another blockbuster year, do they have what it takes to take on Samsung et al here in the West? Let us know what you think down below!