Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has indicated that it has something pretty big in store for its customers in China. Through an announcement on the country’s biggest microblogging site, Weibo, the brand’s marketing director Xu Jieyun announced that the company is about to solve ‘life’s most important questions’. “Next week, there will be a few surprises from Xiaomi, which are going to solve life’s most important questions”, is what his cryptic post on Weibo had to say. While speculations are on as to what exactly life’s most important question might be according to Xiaomi, some commentators are already speculating that the company is about to launch some sort of a financing plan for would-be buyers of its smartphones. The speculations stem from the fact that the text on the post is accompanied by the image of a wad of cash – 100 Yuan bills to be precise – fanned out like a deck of cards.
Another fairly stunning rumor on China Times has claimed that Xiaomi’s upcoming announcement would have something to do with the company’s research on hairfall! A remedy for alopecia or male pattern baldness perhaps? Either way, in recent times, Xiaomi has been looking to diversify from being just a smartphone maker, and have been introducing several smart gadgets as part of its ambitions of rolling out smart home solutions in its home base of China and beyond. Towards that end, the company has launched everything from smart air-conditioners, smart lamps, smart routers and myriad other smart devices in the past few months. The company has also long been rumored to get into the financing business, and is believed to be harboring ambitions of introducing an online payment service to rival Alipay – China’s largest online payment company owned by the country’s largest internet company, Alibaba.
As for the latest announcement, while it is not entirely clear as to what exactly the company is hinting at, one thing is for certain. The nascent company which was co-founded just five years ago by Lei Jun and a number of his colleagues, has come a long way from its formative days and is well on its way towards becoming a well-known name globally. The company has already received an enthusiastic response upon its entry in countries like India and Brazil, and the company’s VP of international affairs, Mr. Hugo Barra, has already announced Xiaomi’s intention of starting to sell its mobile handsets in North America within the next couple years or so.