Xiaomi is quite probably the fastest growing smartphone OEM in the world at the moment, and the company has announced further expansion plans soon. This China-based company will start manufacturing smartphones in India later this year, and will start selling their offerings in Brasil later this month. Xiaomi is expected to announce the Redmi Note 2 and Mi 5 handsets in the next couple of months, and we’ve seen quite a few leaks and rumors regarding all that. That being said, we’re not here to talk about Xiaomi’s smartphones this time around, but something else entirely, read on.
As you all know, OEMs usually ship smartphones with chargers included in a box. There were a few smartphones in the past where that wasn’t the case, but in almost every situation, you do get a charger bundled in. Well, Xiaomi might not send you a charger in the future, read on. Xiaomi’s CEO, Lei Jun, has posted a rather interesting question via his Weibo account. Mr. Jun has asked his followers whether they’d feel cheated if the charger didn’t come inside the package along with a smartphone. This is not a confirmation that Xiaomi won’t ship chargers with devices, but it seems like they’re considering their options. As a side note, Xiaomi’s Mi charger costs $1.70 in China at the moment.
I believe that most of you actually think of a charger as something that has to ship with the smartphone you purchase, so why would Lei Jun even ask this question? Is it going to help them reduce the cost of their devices? Well, it’s possible, but people might not react all that well to it, buying a charger separately is something many of them will hate doing. This is actually a rather interesting development, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the end, but the initial reactions to this question weren’t all that good.
Something that Lei Jun probably didn’t think about before posting this question, is the fact that many smartphones today actually ship with special chargers which take advantage of quick charging capabilities (Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 for example). Either way, we’ll let you know when some additional news pops up.