Xiaomi’s Mi Band is the company’s first ever wearable. It’s only been 3 months since the little device first went on sale and looking at the numbers, it’s done exceedingly well. Xiaomi claims to have recorded 1 million shipments of the affordable wearable, when you take into consideration that the main market for the Mi Band, like every other Xiaomi device, is still China, those are massive numbers. There’s a lot of things going Xiaomi’s way with the device, which we shall discuss here.
First, Xiaomi got the timing right, the Mi Band was announced in July, and started shipping in October. This is very much when the wearable bubble started to inflate, and Xiaomi cashed in at the right time. Second, the Mi Band is priced at a mere 79 CNY, which translates to roughly US$13. You’d do well to find another wearable that costs twice as much as does what the Mi Band does, in other words, Xiaomi really killed it with the pricing. Considering its main market was going to be Asia, keeping the prices low was indispensable and Xiaomi realized that.
The Mi Band comes in a variety of colours and has an array of features, which include sleep monitoring, fitness tracking, notification delivery, etc. It also boasts a 30 day battery, and has a design slightly more ergonomic and form lightweight than many of its competitors. All that combined with Xiaomi’s new-found love for markets outside of China make the Mi Band a favourite among users. Reportedly, Xiaomi managed to sell a total of 100,000 units of the Mi Band in one single day, which also remains to be the highest. The fact that the device has counted more than 80 million cumulative steps goes to suggest that people are not only buying the device, but also using it.
Xiaomi fans and users from markets outside of China are waiting to get hold of the Mi Band, such is the demand for the budget wearable. Or perhaps even the buyers have realized it is tough to go wrong with a feature rich wearable that costs just US$13!